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HISTORIC ODDITIES 



AND 



STRANGE EVENTS 



WORKS BY S. BARING GOULD. 

Author of" Mehalah" &*c. 
Large Cr. 8vo, cloth super extra, top edge gilt, ios. 6d. Second Edition. 

OLD COUNTRY LIFE. 

By S. BARING GOULD. 

WITH SIXTY-SEVEN ILLUSTRATIONS BY W. PARKINSON, F. D. BEDFORD, 
AND F. MASEY. 

" It is a pleasure to turn to a book so bright and cheery and picturesque as Old 
Country Life. No man knows or loves quaint Old England better than Mr. Gould. 
The chapters are all excellent, and his delightful volume is brightened with snatches 
of old ballads, of which Mr. Baring Gould is an industrious collector, and illustrated 
with clever and comical drawings." — '1 he Times. 

" Old Country Life, as healthy wholesome reading, full of breezy life and move- 
ment, full of quaint stories vigorously told, will not be excelled by any book to be 
published throughout the year. Sound, hearty, and English to the core." — World. 

HISTORIC ODDITIES AND STRANGE EVENTS. 

By S. Baring Gould. First Series. Demy 8vo, ios. 6d. 
2nd Edition. 

" A collection of exciting and entertaining chapters. The whole volume is delight- 
ful reading." — Times. 

SONGS OF THE WEST: Traditional Ballads and 

Songs of the West of England, with their Traditional Melodies. 
Collected by S. Baring Gould, M.A., and H. Fleetwood 
Sheppard, M.A. Arranged for Voice and Piano. In 4 Parts 
(containing 25 Songs each), 3s. each net. Part I., Third Edition. 
Part II. , Second Edition. Part III. ready. Part IV. hi prepar- 
ation. 

"A rich and varied collection of humour, pathos, grace, and poetic fancy." — 
Saturday Review. 

YORKSHIRE ODDITIES AND STRANGE EVENTS. 

By S. Baring Gould. New and Cheaper Edition. Crown 
8vo, 6s. 

JACQUETTA, and Other Stories. By S. Baring 

Gould. Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d. 

ARMINELL : A Social Romance. By S. Baring 
Gould. New Edition. Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d. 



Historic Oddities 



STRANGE EVENTS 



BY 



S^BARING GOULD, M.A. 

AUTHOR OF "MEHALAH," "OLD COUNTRY LIFE," ETC. 



SECOND SERIES 



Xonfcon 

METHUEN & CO. 

i 8 BURY STREET, W. C. 

1891 



3>&» 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

A Swiss Passion Play - i 

A Northern Raphael - - 39 

The Poisoned Parsnips ------ 67 

The Murder of Father Thomas in Damascus - 86 

Some Accusations against Jews - - - - 107 

The Coburg Mausoleum - - - - - - 120 

Jean Aymon ------ - 129 

The Patarines of Milan - - 146 

The Anabaptists of Munster - 195 



7 



PREFACE. 



Two of the articles in this Series are concerned with 
the history of mysticism, 'a phase of human nature 
that deserves careful and close study. It is the out- 
break in man of a spiritual element which cannot be 
ignored, cannot be wholly suppressed. It is capable 
of regulation, but unregulated, it is a most mischievous 
faculty. 

"The Patarines of Milan" appeared in Frasers 
Magazine in 1874. It is a curious episode in the 
history of religious fanaticism, that has, I believe, 
never before been worked out so completely from 
the contemporary historians. When the Jews arc 
menaced with expulsion from Russia, and regarded 
with bitter hostility in other parts of Eastern Europe, 
the article on the accusations brought against them 
may prove not uninstructive reading". 

S. Baring Gould. 

Lew Trenchard, Devon, 
Sept. 27th, 1890. 



H Swiss passion pla^. 

We are a little surprised, and perhaps a little 
shocked, at the illiberality of the Swiss Government, 
in even such Protestant cantons as Geneva, Zurich, 
and Berne, in forbidding the performances on their 
ground of the " Salvation Army," and think that such 
conduct is not in accordance with Protestant liberty 
of judgment and democratic independence. But the 
experiences gone through in Switzerland as in Ger- 
many of the confusion and mischief sometimes 
wrought by fanaticism, we will not say justify, but 
in a measure explain, the objection the Government 
has to a recrudescence of religious mysticism in its 
more flagrant forms. The following story exempli- 
fies the extravagance to which such spiritual exalta- 
tion runs occasionally — fortunately only occasionally. 
About eight miles from Schaffhausen, a little way 
on one side of the road to Winterthur, in a valley, lies 
the insignificant hamlet of Wildisbuch, its meadows 
overshadowed by leafy walnut trees. The hamlet is 
in the parish of Triillikon. Here, at the beginning of 
this century, in a farmhouse, standing by itself, lived 
John Peter, a widower, with several of his children. 
He had but one son, Caspar, married in 1812, and 
divorced from his wife ; he was, however, blessed with 
five daughters— Barbara, married to a blacksmith in 
Triillikon ; Susanna, Elizabeth, Magdalena married to 



2 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

John Moser, a shoemaker ; and Margaretta, born in 
1794, his youngest, and favourite child. Not long 
after the birth of Margaretta, her mother died, and 
thenceforth the child was the object of the tenderest 
and most devoted solicitude to her sisters and to her 
father. Margaretta grew up to be a remarkable 
child. At school she distinguished herself by her 
aptitude in learning, and in church by the devotion 
with which she followed the tedious Zwinglian 
service. The pastor who prepared her for confirma- 
tion was struck by her enthusiasm and eagerness to 
know about religion. She was clearly an imaginative 
person, and to one constituted as she was, the barn- 
like church, destitute of every element of beauty, 
studiously made as hideous as a perverse fancy 
could scheme, and the sacred functions reduced to 
utter dreariness, with every element of devotion 
bled out of them, were incapable of satisfying the 
internal spiritual fire that consumed her. 

There is in every human soul a divine aspiration, 
a tension after the invisible and spiritual, in some 
more developed than in others, in certain souls ex- 
isting only in that rudimentary condition in which, it 
is said, feet are found in the eel, and eyes in the 
oyster, but in others it is a predominating faculty, a 
veritable passion. Unless this faculty be given 
legitimate scope, be disciplined and guided, it breaks 
forth in abnormal and unhealthy manifestations. We 
know what is the result when the regular action of 
the pores of the skin is prevented, or the circulation 
of the blood is impeded. Fever and hallucination 
ensue. So is it with the spiritual life in man. If 



A S W1SS PASSION PL A Y. 3 

that be not given free passage for healthy discharge 
of its activity, it will resolve itself into fanaticism, 
that is to say it will assume a diseased form of 
manifestation. 

Margaretta was far ahead of her father, brother and 
sisters in intellectual culture, and in moral force of 
character. 

Susanna, the second daughter of John Peter, was 
an amiable, industrious, young woman, without in- 
dependence of character. The third daughter, 
Elizabeth, was a quiet girl, rather dull in brain ; 
Barbara was married when Margaretta was only nine, 
and Magdalena not long after; neither of them, how- 
ever, escaped the influence of their youngest sister, 
who dominated over their wills almost as completely 
as she did over those of her two unmarried sisters, 
with whom she consorted daily. 

How great her power over her sisters was may be 
judged from what they declared in after years in 
prison, and from what they endured for her sake. 

Barbara, the eldest, professed to the prison chap- 
lain in Ztirich, in 1823, "I am satisfied that God 
worked in mighty power, and in grace through 
Margaret, up to the hour of her death." The father 
himself declared after the ruin of his family and the 
death of two of his daughters, " I am assured that 
my youngest daughter was set apart by God for 
some extraordinary purpose." 

When Margaret was six, she was able to read her 
Bible, and would summon the family about her to 
listen to her lectures out of the sacred volume. She 
would also at the same time pray with great ardour, 



4 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

and exhort her father and sisters to lead God-fearing 
lives. When she read the narrative of the Passion, 
she was unable to refrain from tears ; her emotion 
communicated itself to all assembled round her, and 
the whole family sobbed and prayed aloud. She 
was a veritable " ministering child " to her household 
in all things spiritual. As she had been born at 
Christmas, it was thought that this very fact indicated 
some special privilege and grace accorded to her. In 
181 1, when aged seventeen, she received her first com- 
munion and edified all the church with the unction 
and exaltation of soul with which she presented 
herself at the table. In after years the pastor of 
Trullikon said of her, " Unquestionably Margaretta 
was the cleverest of the family. She often came to 
thank me for the instructions I had given her in 
spiritual things. Her promises to observe all I had 
taught her were most fervent. I had the best hopes 
for her, although I observed somewhat of extra- 
vagance in her. Margaretta speedily obtained an 
absolute supremacy in her father's house. All must 
do what she ordered. Her will expressed by word 
of mouth, or by letter when absent, was obeyed as the 
will of God." 

In personal appearance Margaretta was engaging. 
She was finely moulded, had a well-proportioned 
body, a long neck on which her head was held very 
upright ; large, grey-blue eyes, fair hair, a lofty, well- 
arched brow. The nose was well-shaped, but the 
chin and mouth were somewhat coarse. 

In 1816, her mother's brother, a small farmer at 
Rudolfingen, invited her to come and manage his 



A SWISS PASSION PLAY. 5 

house for him. She went, and was of the utmost 
assistance. Everything prospered under her hand. 
Her uncle thought that she had brought the blessing 
of the Almighty on both his house and his land. 

Whilst at Rudolfingen, the holy maiden was 
brought in contact with the Pietists of Schaffhausen. 
She attended their prayer-meetings and expositions 
of Scripture. This deepened her religious convictions, 
and produced a depression in her manner that struck 
her sisters when she visited them. In answer to their 
inquiries why she was reserved and melancholy, she 
replied that God was revealing Himself to her more 
and more every day, so that she became daily more 
conscious of her own sinfulness. If this had really 
been the case it would have saved her from what en- 
sued, but this sense of her own sinfulness was a mere 
phrase, that meant actually an overweening self-con- 
sciousness. She endured only about a twelve month 
of the pietistic exercises at Schaffhausen, and then 
felt a call to preach, testify and prophesy herself, in- 
stead of sitting at the feet of others. Accordingly 
she threw up her place with her uncle, and returned to 
Wildisbuch, in March, 1817, when she began opera- 
tions as a revivalist. 

The paternal household was now somewhat en- 
larged. The old farmer had taken on a hand to help 
him in field and stable, called Heinrich Ernst, and a 
young woman as maid called Margaret Jaggli. Ernst 
was a faithful, amiable young fellow whom old Peters 
thoroughly trusted, and he became devoted heart and 
soul to the family. Margaret Jaggli was a person of 
very indifferent character, who, for her immoralities, 



6 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

had been turned out of her native village. She was 
subject to epileptic fits, which she supposed were pos- 
session by the devil, and she came to the farm of the 
Peter's family in hopes of being there cured by the 
prayers of the saintly Margaretta. 

Another inmate of the house was Ursula Ktindig, 
who entered it at the age of nineteen, and lived there 
as a veritable maid-of-all-work, though paid no wages. 
This damsel was of the sweetest, gentlest disposition. 
Her parish pastor gave testimony to her, " She was 
always so good that even scandal-mongers were un- 
able to find occasion for slander in her conduct." Her 
countenance was full of intelligence, purity, and had 
in it a nobility above her birth and education. Her 
home had been unhappy; she had been engaged to be 
married to a young man, but finding that he did 
not care for her, and sought only her small property, 
she broke off the engagement, to her father's great 
annoyance. It was owing to a quarrel at home re- 
lative to this, that she went to Wildisbuch to entreat 
Margaretta Peter to be "her spiritual guide through life 
into eternity." Ursula had at first only paid occasional 
visits to Wildisbuch, but gradually these visits became 
long, and finally she took up her residence in the 
house. The soul of the unhappy girl was as wax in 
the hands of the saint, whom she venerated with in- 
tensest admiration as the Elect of the Lord ; and she 
professed her unshaken conviction " that Christ re- 
vealed Himself in the flesh through her, and that 
through her many thousands of souls were saved." 
The house at Wildisbuch became thenceforth a great 
gathering place for all the spiritually-minded in the 



A S WISS PASSION PLA Y. 7 

neighbourhood, who desired instruction, guidance, en- 
lightenment, and Margaretta, the high priestess of 
mysticism to all such as could find no satisfaction for 
the deepest hunger of their souls in the Zwinglian 
services of their parish church. 

Man is composed of two parts ; he has a spiritual 
nature which he shares with the angels, and an animal 
nature that he possesses in common with the beasts. 
There is in him, consequently, a double tendency, one 
to the indefinite, unconfined, spiritual ; the other to 
the limited, sensible and material. The religious 
history of all times shows us this higher nature striv- 
ing after emancipation from the law of the body, and 
never succeeding in accomplishing the escape, always 
falling back, like Daedalus, into destruction, when 
attempting to defy the laws of nature and soar too 
near to the ineffable light. The mysticism of the old 
heathen world, the mysticism of the Gnostic sects, the 
mysticism of mediaeval heretics, almost invariably re- 
solved itself into orgies of licentiousness. God has 
bound soul and body together, and an attempt to dis- 
sociate them in religion is fatally doomed to ruin. 

The incarnation of the Son of God was the indis- 
soluble union of Spirit with form as the basis of true 
religion. Thenceforth, Spirit was no more to be 
dissociated from matter, authority from a visible 
Church, grace from a sacramental sign, morality from 
a fixed law. All the great revolts against Catholicism 
in the middle-ages, were more or less revolts against 
this principle and were reversions to pure spiritualism. 
The Reformation was taken advantage of for the 
mystic aspirations of men to run riot. Individual 



8 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

emotion became the supreme and sole criticism of 
right and wrong, of truth and falsehood, and sole 
authority to which submission must be tendered. 

In the autumn of 1817, Margaretta of Wildisbuch 
met a woman who was also remarkable in her way,. 
and the head of another revivalist movement. This 
was Julianne von Kriidner ; about whom a word must 
now be said. 

Julianne was born in 1766, at Riga, the daughter 
of a noble and wealthy family. Her father visited 
Paris and took the child with him, where she made 
the acquaintance of the rationalistic and speculative 
spirits of French society, before the Revolution. In a 
Voltairean atmosphere, the little Julianne grew up 
without religious faith or moral principle. At the 
age of fourteen she was married to a man much older 
than herself, the Baron von Kriidner, Russian Am- 
bassador at Venice. There her notorious immoralities 
resulted in a separation, and Julianne was obliged to 
return to her father's house at Riga. This did not 
satisfy her love of pleasure and vanity, and she went 
to St. Petersburg and then to Paris, where she threw 
herself into every sort of dissipation. She wrote a 
novel, " Valerie," in which she frankly admitted that 
woman, when young, must give herself up to pleasure, 
then take up with art, and finally, when nothing else 
was left her, devote herself to religion. At the age of 
forty she had already entered on this final phase. 
She went to Berlin, was admitted to companionship 
with the Queen, Louise, and endeavoured to " convert" 
her. The sweet, holy queen required no conversion, 
and the Baroness von Kriidner was obliged to leave 



A S WISS PASSION PLA Y. 9 

Berlin. She wandered thenceforth from place to 
place, was now in Paris, then in Geneva, and then in 
Germany. At Karlsruhe she met Jung-Stilling ; and 
thenceforth threw herself heart and soul into the 
pietistic revival. Her mission now was — so she con- 
ceived — to preach the Gospel to the poor. In 18 14 
she obtained access to the Russian Court, where her 
prophecies and exhortations produced such an effect 
on the spirit of the Czar, Alexander I., that he entreated 
her to accompany him to Paris. She did so, and held 
spiritual conferences and prayer meetings in the 
French capital. Alexander soon tired of her, and 
she departed to Basel, where she won to her the 
Genevan Pastor Empeytaz and the Basel Professor 
Lachenal. Her meetings for revival,which were largely 
attended, caused general excitement, but led to many 
domestic quarrels, so that the city council gave her 
notice to leave the town. She then made a pilgrimage 
along the Rhine, but her proceedings were everywhere 
objected to by the police and town authorities, and 
she was sent back under police supervision first to 
Leipzig, and thence into Russia. 

Thence in 1824 she departed for the Crimea, where 
she had resolved to start a colony on the plan of the 
Moravian settlements, and there died before accom- 
plishing her intention. 

It was in 18 17, when she was conducting her 
apostolic progress along the Rhine, that she and 
Margaretta of Wildisbuch met. Apparently the latter 
made a deeper impression on the excitable baroness 
than had the holy Julianne on Margaretta. The two 
aruspices did not laugh when they met, for they were 



io HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

both in deadly earnest, and had not the smallest 
suspicion that they were deluding themselves first, 
and then others. 

The meeting with the Kriidner had a double effect. 
In the first place, the holy Julianne, when forced to 
leave the neighbourhood by the unregenerate police, 
commended her disciples to the blessed Margaret ; 
■and, in the second place, the latter had the shrewdness 
to perceive, that, if she was to play anything like the 
part of her fellow-apostle, she must acquire a little 
more education. Consequently Margaret took pains 
to write grammatically, and to spell correctly. 

The result of the commendation by Saint Julianne 
of her disciples to Margaret was that thenceforth a 
regular pilgrimage set in to Wildisbuch of devout 
persons in landaus and buggies, on horse and on foot. 

Some additional actors in the drama must now be 
introduced. 

Magdalena Peter, the fourth daughter of John Peter, 
was married to the cobbler, John Moser. The influence 
of Margaret speedily made itself felt in their house. At 
first Moser's old mother lived with the couple, along 
with Conrad, John Moser's younger brother. The 
first token of the conversion of Moser and his wife was 
that they kicked the old mother out of the house, 
because she was worldly and void of " saving grace." 
Conrad was a plodding, hard-working lad, very useful, 
and therefore not to be dispensed with. The chosen 
vessels finding he did not sympathise with them, and 
finding him too valuable to be done without, starved 
him till he yielded to their fancies, saw visions, and 
professed himself " saved." Barbara, also, married to 



A SWISS PASSION PLAY. n 

the blacksmith Baumann, was next converted, and 
brought all her spiritual artillery to bear on the black- 
smith, but in vain. He let her go her own way, but 
he would have nothing himself to say to the great 
spiritual revival in the house of the Peters. Barbara, 
not finding a kindred soul in her husband, had taken 
up with a man of like soaring piety, a tailor, named 
Habltitzel. 

Another person who comes into this story is Jacob 
Ganz, a tailor, who had been mixed up with the 
movement at Basel under Julianne the Holy. 

Margaret's brother Caspar was a man of infamous 
character; he was separated from his wife, whom he 
had treated with brutality ; had become the father of 
an illegitimate child, and now loafed about the country 
preaching the Gospel. * 

Ganz, the tailor, had thrown aside his shears, and 
constituted himself a roving preacher. In one of 
his apostolic tours he had made the acquaintance 
of Saint Margaret, and had been deeply impressed 
by her. He had an elect disciple at Illnau, 
in the Kempthal, south of Winterthlir. This was 
a shoemaker named Jacob Morf, a married man, 
aged thirty ; small, with a head like a pumpkin. To 
this shoemaker Ganz spoke with enthusiam of the 
spiritual elevation of the holy Margaret, and Morf was 
filled with a lively desire of seeing and hearing her. 

Margaretta seems after a while to have wearied of 
the monotony of life in her father's house, or else the 
spirit within her drove her abroad to carry her light 
into the many dark corners of her native canton. 
She resolved to be like Ganz, a roving apostle. Some- 



12 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

times she started on her missionary journeys alone,, 
sometimes along with her sister Elizabeth, who sub- 
mitted to her with blind and stanch obedience, or else 
with Ursula Kiindig. These journeys began in 1820, 
and extended as far Zurich and along the shores of 
that lovely lake. In May of the same year she visited 
Illnau, where she was received with enthusiasm by the 
faithful, who assembled in the house of a certain 
Ruegg, and there for the first time she met with Jacob 
Morf. The acquaintance then begun soon quickened 
into friendship. When a few weeks later he went to 
Schaffhausen to purchase leather, he turned aside to 
Wildisbuch. After this his visits there became not 
only frequent, but were protracted. 

Margaret was the greatest comfort to him in his 
troubled state of soul. She described to him the 
searchings and anxieties she had undergone, so that he 
cried " for very joy that he had encountered one who 
had gone through the same experience as himself." 

In November, 1820, Margaret took up her abode 
for some time in the house of a disciple, Caspar Notz,. 
near Zurich, and made it the centre whence she 
started on a series of missionary excursions. Here 
also gathered the elect out of Zurich to hear her 
expound Scripture, and pray. And hither also came 
the cobbler Morf seeking ease for his troubled soul, 
and on occasions stayed in the house there with her 
for a week at a time. At last his wife, the worthy 
Regula Morf, came from Illnau to find her husband, 
and persuaded him to return with her to his cobbling 
at home. 

At the end of January in 1821, Margaret visited 



A S WISS PASSION PL A ¥. 13 

Illnau again, and drew away after her the bewitched 
Jacob, who followed her all the way home, to Wildis- 
buch, and remained at her father's house ten days 
further. 

On Ascension Day following, he was again with 
her, and then she revealed to him that it was the will 
of heaven that they should ascend together, without 
tasting death, into the mansions of the blessed, and 
were to occupy one throne together for all eternity. 
Throughout this year, when the cobbler, Jacob, 
was not at Wildisbuch, or Saint Margaretta at Illnau, 
the pair were writing incessantly to each other, and 
their correspondence is still preserved in the archives 
of Zurich. Here is a specimen of the style of the holy 
Margaret. " My dear child ! your dear letter filled 
me with joy. O, my dear child, how gladly would I 
tell you how it fares with me ! When we parted, I 
was forced to go aside where none might see, to 
relieve my heart with tears. O, my heart, I cannot 
describe to you the distress into which I fell. I lay 
as one senseless for an hour. For anguish of heart I 
could not go home, such unspeakable pains did I 
suffer ! My former separation from you was but a 
shadow of this parting. O, why are you so unutterably 
dear to me, &c," and then a flow of sickly, pious 
twaddle that makes the gorge rise. 

Regula Morf read this letter and shook her head 
over it. She had shaken her head over another letter 
received by her husband a month earlier, in which the 
holy damsel had written : " O, how great is my love ! 
It is stronger than death. O, how dear are you to me. 
I could hug you to my heart a thousand times." And 



i 4 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

had scribbled on the margin, " These words are for 
your eye alone." However, Regula saw them, shook 
her head and told her husband that the letter seemed 
to her unenlightened mind to be very much like a 
love-letter. " Nothing of the sort," answered the 
cobbler, " it speaks of spiritual affection only." 

We must now pass over a trait in the life of the 
holy maid which is to the last degree unedifying, but 
which is merely another exemplification of that truth 
which the history of mysticism enforces in every age, 
that spiritual exaltation runs naturally, inevitably, into 
licentiousness, unless held in the iron bands of disci- 
pline to the moral law. A mystic is a law to himself. 
He bows before no exterior authority. However 
much he may transgress the code laid down by 
religion, he feels no compunction, no scruples, for his 
heart condemns him not. It was so with the holy 
Margaret. Her lapse or lapses in no way roused her 
to a sense of sin, but served only to drive her further 
forward on the mad career of self-righteous exalta- 
tion. 

She had disappeared for many months from her 
father's house, along with her sister Elizabeth. The 
police had inquired as to their whereabouts of old 
John Peter, but he had given them no information as 
to where his daughters were. He professed not to 
know. He was threatened unless they were produced 
by a certain day that he would be fined. The police 
were sent in search in every direction but the right one. 

Suddenly in the night of January nth, 1823, the 
sisters re-appeared, Margaret, white, weak, and pros- 
trate with sickness. 



A SWISS PASSION PLAY. 15, 

A fortnight after her return, Jacob Morf was again 
at Wildisbuch, as he said afterwards before court,, 
"led thither because assured by Margaret that they 
were to ascend together to heaven without dying." 

From this time forward, Margaretta's conduct went 
into another phase. Instead of resuming her pilgrim's 
staff and travelling round the country preaching the 
Gospel, she remained all day in one room with her 
sister Elizabeth, the shutters closed, reading the Bible, 
meditating, and praying, and writing letters to her 
" dear child " Jacob. The transgressions she had com- 
mitted were crosses laid on her shoulder by God. 
" Oh ! why," she wrote in one of her epistles, " did my 
Heavenly Father choose that from all eternity in His 
providence for me? There were thousands upon 
thousands of other crosses He might have laid on me. 
But He elected that one which would be heaviest for 
me, heavier than all the persecutions to which I am 
subjected by the devil, and which all but overthrow me. 
From the foundation of the world He has never so 
tried any of His saints as He has us. It gives 
joy to all the host of heaven when we suffer to the 
end." Again, " the greater the humiliation and shame 
we undergo, and have to endure from our enemies 
here below " — consider, brought on herself by her own 
scandalous conduct — " the more unspeakable our 
glorification in heaven." 

In the evening, Margaretta would come downstairs 
and receive visitors, and preach and prophesy to 
them. The entire house was given over to religious 
ecstasy that intensified as Easter approached. Every 
now and then the saint assembled the household and. 



i6 HISTORIC ODD I TIES. 

exhorted them to watch and pray, for a great trial of 
their faith was at hand. Once she asked them 
whether they were ready to lay down their lives for 
Christ. One day she said, in the spirit of prophecy, 
" Behold ! I see the host of Satan drawing nearer and 
nearer to encompass me. He strives to overcome me. 
Let me alone that I may fight him." Then she flung 
her arms about and struck in the air with her open 
hands. 

The idea grew in her that the world was in danger, 
that the devil was gaining supremacy over it, and 
would carry all souls into captivity once more, and 
that she — and almost only she — stood in his way and 
was protecting the world of men against his power. 

For years she had exercised her authority, that 
grew with every year, over everyone in the house, and 
not a soul there had thought of resisting her, of evad- 
ing the commands she laid on them, of questioning 
her word. 

The house was closed against all but the very elect. 
The pastor of the parish, as " worldly," was not suffered 
to cross the threshold. At a tap, the door was opened, 
and those deemed worthy were admitted, and the door 
hastily barred and bolted behind them. Everything 
was viewed in a spiritual light. One evening Ursula 
Kiindig and Margaretta Jaggli were sitting spinning 
near the stove. Suddenly there was a pop. A knot 
in the pine-logs in the stove had exploded. But up 
sprang Jaggli, threw over her spinning-wheel, and 
shrieked out — " Hearken ! Satan is banging at the 
window. He wants me. He will fetch me ! " She 
fell convulsed on the floor, foaming at the mouth. 



A SWISS PASSION PLAY. 17 

Margaret, the saint, was summoned. The writhing 
girl shrieked out, " Pray for me ! Save me ! Fight 
for my soul ! " and Margaretta at once began her 
spiritual exercises to ban the evil spirit from the 
afflicted and possessed servant-maid. She beat with 
her hands in the air, cried out, " Depart, thou murderer 
of souls, accursed one, to hell-fire. Wilt thou try to rob 
me of my sheep that was lost? My sheep — whom I 
have pledged myself to save ? " 

One day, the maid had a specially bad epileptic fit. 
Around her bed stood old John Peter, Elizabeth and 
Susanna, Ursula Ktindig, and John Moser, as well as 
the saint. Margaret was fighting with the Evil One 
with her fists and her cries, when John Moser fell into 
ecstasy and saw a vision. His account shall be given 
in his own words : " I saw Christ and Satan, and the 
latter held a book open before Christ and bade Him 
see how many claims he had on the soul of Jaggli. 
The book was scored diagonally with red lines on all 
the pages. I saw this distinctly, and therefore con- 
cluded that the account was cancelled. Then I saw 
all the saints in heaven snatch the book away, and 
tear it into a thousand pieces that fell down in a rain." 

But Satan was not to be defeated and driven 
away so easily. He had made himself a nest, so 
Margaret stated, under the roof of the house, and only 
a desperate effort of faith and contest with spiritual 
arms could expel him. For this Armageddon she 
bade all prepare. It is hardly necessary to add that 
it could not be fought without the presence of the 
dearly beloved Jacob. She wrote to him and invited 
him to come to the great and final struggle with the 



1 8 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

devil and all his host, and the obedient cobbler 
girded his loins and hastened to Wildisbuch, where 
he arrived on Saturday the 8th March, 1823. 

On Monday, in answer, probably, to her summons, 
came also John Moser and his brother Conrad. Then 
also Margaret's own and only brother, Caspar. 

Before proceeding to the climax of this story we 
may well pause to ask whether the heroine was in 
her senses or not ; whether she set the avalanche in 
motion that overwhelmed herself and her house, with 
deliberation and consciousness as to the end to which 
she was aiming. The woman was no vulgar im- 
postor; she deceived herself to her own destruction. 
In her senses, so far, she had set plainly before 
her the object to which she was about to hurry her 
dupes, but her reason and intelligence were smothered 
under her overweening self-esteem, that had grown 
like a great spiritual cancer, till it had sapped 
common-sense, and all natural affection, even the 
very instinct of self-preservation. Before her diseased 
eyes, the salvation of the whole world depended on 
herself. If she failed in her struggle with the evil 
principle, all mankind fell under the bondage of 
Satan ; but she could not fail — she was all-powerful, 
exalted above every chance of failure in the battle, 
just as she was exalted above every lapse in virtue, do 
what she might, which to the ordinary sense of man- 
kind is immoral. Every mystic does not go as far 
as Margaret Peter, happily, but all take some strides 
along that road that leads to self-deification and 
anomia. In Margaret's conduct, in preparation for 
the final tragedy, there was a good deal of shrewd 



A S IVJSS PASSION PL A V. 19 

calculation ; she led up to it by a long isolation and 
envelopment of herself and her doings in mystery ; and 
she called her chosen disciples to witness it. Each 
stage in the drama was calculated to produce a cer- 
tain effect, and she measured her influence over her 
creatures before she advanced another step. On 
Monday all were assembled and in expectation; Ar- 
mageddon was to be fought, but when the battle 
would begin, and how it would be carried through, 
were unknown. Tuesday arrived; some of the house- 
hold went about their daily work, the rest were 
gathered together in the room where Margaret was,, 
lost in silent prayer. Every now and then the hush 
in the darkened room was broken by a wail of the 
saint : " I am sore straitened ! I am in anguish ! — but 
I refresh my soul at the prospect of the coming 
exaltation ! " or, " My struggle with Satan is severe. 
He strives to retain the souls which I will wrest from 
his hold; some have been for two hundred, even three 
hundred years in his power." 

One can imagine the scene — the effect produced 
on those assembled about the pale, striving ecstatic. 
All who were present afterwards testified that on the 
Tuesday and the following days they hardly left the 
room, hardly allowed themselves time to snatch a 
hasty meal, so full of expectation were they that 
some great and awful event was about to take place 
The holy enthusiasm was general, and if one or two, 
such as old Peter and his son, Caspar, were less 
magnetised than the rest, they were far removed 
from the thought of in any way contesting the 
will of the prophetess, or putting the smallest im- 



20 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

pediment in the way of her accomplishing what she 
desired. 

When evening came, she ascended to an upper 
room, followed by the whole company, and there she 
declared, " Lo ! I see Satan and his first-born floating 
in the air. They are dispersing their emissaries to 
all corners of the earth to summon their armies to- 
gether." Elizabeth, somewhat tired of playing a 
passive part, added, " Yes — I see them also." Then 
the holy maid relapsed into her mysterious silence. 
After waiting another hour, all went to bed, see- 
ing that nothing further would happen that night. 
Next day, Wednesday, she summoned the household 
into her bedroom ; seated on her bed she bade them 
all kneel down and pray to the Lord to strengthen 
her hands for the great contest. They continued 
striving in prayer till noon, and then, feeling hungry, 
all went downstairs to get some food. When they 
had stilled their appetites, Margaret was again seized 
by the spirit of prophecy, and declared, "The Lord 
has revealed to me what will happen in the latter 
days. The son of Napoleon " (that poor, feeble mortal 
the Duke of Reichstadt) "will appear before the world 
as anti-Christ, and will strive to bring the world over 
to his side. He will undergo a great conflict ; but 
what will be the result is not shown me at the present 
moment ; but I am promised a spiritual token of this 
revelation." And the token followed. The dearly- 
loved Jacob, John Moser, and Ursula Kiindig cried out 
that they saw two evil spirits, one in the form of 
Napoleon, pass into Margaret Jaggli, and the other, 
in that of his son, enter into Elizabeth. Whereupon 



A S W1SS PASSION PL A Y. 21 

Elizabeth, possessed by the spirit of that poor, little, 
sickly Duke of Reichstadt, began to march about the 
room and assume a haughty, military air. There- 
upon the prophetess wrestled in spirit and overcame 
these devils and expelled them. Thereat Elizabeth 
gave up her military flourishes. 

From daybreak on the following day the blessed 
Margaret "had again a desperate struggle," but with- 
out the assistance of the household, which was sum- 
moned to take their share in the battle in the after- 
noon only. She bade them follow her to the upper 
chamber, and a procession ascended the steep stairs, 
consisting of Margaret, followed by Elizabeth and 
Susanna Peter, Ursula Ktindig and Jaggli, the old 
father and his son, Caspar, the serving-man, Heinrich 
Ernst, then Jacob Morf, John Moser, and the rear 
was brought up by the young Conrad. As soon as 
the prophetess had taken her seat on the bed, she 
declared, " Last night it was revealed to me that you 
are all of you to unite with me in the battle with the 
devil, lest he should conquer Christ. I must strive, 
lest your souls and those of so many, many others 
should be lost. Come, then ! strive with me ; but, 
first of all, kneel down, lay your faces in the dust and 
pray." Thereupon, all prostrated themselves on the 
floor and prayed in silence. Presently the prophetess 
exclaimed from her throne on the bed, " The hour is 
come in which the conflict must take place, so that 
Christ may gather together His Church, and contend 
with anti-Christ. After Christ has assembled His 
Church, 1260 days will elapse, and then anti-Christ 
will appear in human form, and with sweet and entic- 



22 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

ing words will strive to seduce the elect ; but all true 
Christians will hold aloof." After a pause, she said 
solemnly, "In verity, anti-Christ is already among us." 

Then with a leap she was off the bed, turning her 
eyes about, throwing up her hands, rushing about the 
room, striking the chairs and clothes-boxes with her 
fists, crying, " The scoundrel, the murderer of souls ! " 
And, finding a hammer, she began to beat the wall 
with it. 

The company looked on in breathless amaze. But 
the epileptic Jaggli went into convulsions, writhed on 
the ground, groaned, shrieked and wrung her hands. 
Then the holy Margaretta cried, " I see in spirit the 
old Napoleon gathering a mighty host, and marching 
against me. The contest will be terrible. You must 
wrestle unto blood. Go ! fly ! fetch me axes, clubs, 
whatever you can find. Bar the doors, curtain all the 
windows in the house, and close every shutter." 

Whilst her commands were being fulfilled in all 
haste, and the required weapons were sought out, 
John Moser, who remaind behind, saw the room 
" filled with a dazzling glory, such as no tongue could 
describe," and wept for joy. The excitement had 
already mounted to visionary ecstasy. It was five 
o'clock when the weapons were brought upstairs. The 
holy Margaretta was then seated on her bed, wringing 
her hands, and crying to all to pray, " Help ! help ! 
all of you, that Christ may not be overcome in me. 
Strike, smite, cleave, — everywhere, on all sides — the 
floor, the walls ! It is the will of God ! smite on till 
I bid you stay. Smite and lose your lives if need 
be." 



A SWISS PASSION PLAY. 23 

It was a wonder that lives were not lost in the 
extraordinary scene that ensued ; the room was full 
of men and women; there were ten of them armed 
with hatchets, crowbars, clubs, pick-axes, raining 
blows on walls and floor, on chairs, tables, cupboards 
and chests. This lasted for three hours. Margaret 
remained on the bed, encouraging the party to con- 
tinue ; when any arm flagged she singled out the 
weary person, and exhorted him, as he loved his soul, 
to fight more valiantly and utterly defeat and destroy 
the devil. " Strike him ! cut him down ! the old 
adversary ! the arch-fiend ! whoso loseth his life shall 
find it. Fear nothing; ! smite till your blood runs 
down as sweat. There he is in yonder corner; now at 
him," and Elizabeth served as her echo, " Smite ! strike 
on ! He is a murderer, he is the young Napoleon, the 
coming anti-Christ, who entered into me and almost 
destroyed me." 

This lasted, as already said, for three hours. The 
room was full of dust. The warriors steamed with 
their exertions, and the sweat rolled off them. Never 
had men and women fought with greater enthusiasm. 
The battle of Don Quixote against the wind-mills was 
nothing to this. What blows and wounds the devil and 
the young Duke of Reichstadt obtained is unrecorded, 
but walls and floor and furniture in the room were 
wrecked ; indeed pitchfork and axe had broken down 
one wall of the house and exposed what went on 
inside to the eyes of a gaping crowd that had assem- 
bled without, amazed at the riot that went on in the 
house that was regarded as a very sanctuary of religion. 

No sooner did the saint behold the faces of the 



24 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

crowd outside than she shrieked forth, " Behold them I 
the enemies of God ! the host of Satan, coming on ! 
But fear them not, we shall overcome." 

At last the combatants were no longer able to raise 
their arms or maintain themselves on their feet. 
Then Margaret exclaimed, " The victory is won ! fol- 
low me ! " She led them downstairs into the common 
sitting-room, where close-drawn curtains and fastened 
shutters excluded the rude gaze of the profane. Here 
a rushlight was kindled, and by its light the battle 
continued with an alteration in the tactics. 

In complete indifference to the mob that surrounded 
the house and clamoured at the door for admission, 
the saint ordered all to throw themselves on the 
ground and thank heaven for the victory they had 
won. Then after a pause of more than an hour the 
same scene began again, and that it could recommence 
is evidence how much man can do and endure, when 
possessed by a holy craze. 

It was afterwards supposed that the whole pious 
community was drunk with schnaps ; but with injustice. 
Their stomachs were empty ; it was their brains that 
were drunk. 

The holy Margaret, standing in the midst of the 
prostrate worshippers, now ordered them to beat 
themselves with their fists on their heads and breasts, 
and they obeyed. Elizabeth yelled, " O, Margaret ! 
Do thou strike me ! Let me die for Christ." 

Thereupon the holy one struck her sister repeatedly 
with her fists, so that Elizabeth cried out with pain, 
" Bear it ! " exclaimed Margaret ; " It is the wrath of 
God!" 



A S WISS PASSION PLA Y. 2$ 

The prima-donna of the whole comedy in the 
meanwhile looked well about her to see that none of 
the actors spared themselves. When she saw anyone 
slack in his self-chastisement, she called to him to re- 
double his blows. As the old man did not exhibit 
quite sufficient enthusiasm in self-torture, she cried, 
" Father, you do not beat yourself sufficiently ! " and 
then began to batter him with her own fists. The 
ill-treated old man groaned under her blows, but she 
cheered him with, " I am only driving out the old 
Adam, father ! It does not hurt you," and redoubled 
her pommelling of his head and back. Then out 
went the light. 

All this while the crowd listened and passed re- 
marks outside. No one would interfere, as it was no 
one's duty to interfere. Tidings of what was going 
on did, however, reach the amtmann of the parish, but 
he was an underling, and did not care to meddle with- 
out higher authority, so sent word to the amtmann of 
the district. This latter called to him his secretary, 
his constable and a policeman, and reached the house 
of the Peter's family at ten o'clock. In his report to 
the police at Zurich he says : " On the 13th about 10 
o'clock at night I reached Wildisbuch, and then heard 
that the noise in the house of the Peter's family had 
ceased, that all lights were out, and that no one was 
stirring. I thought it advisable not to disturb this 
tranquillity, so left orders that the house should be 
watched,'' and then he went into the house of a neigh- 
bour. At midnight, the policeman who had been left 
on guard came to announce that there was a renewal 
of disturbance in the house of the Peters. The amt- 



26 HISTORIC ODDITIES, 

mann went to the spot and heard muffled cries of 
" Save us ! have mercy on us ! Strike away ! he is a 
murderer! spare him not!" and a trampling, and a 
sound of blows, " as though falling on soft bodies." 
The amtmann knocked at the window and ordered 
those within to admit him. As no attention was paid 
to his commands, he bade the constable break open 
the house door. This was done, but the sitting-room 
door was now found to be fast barred. The constable 
then ascended to the upper room and saw in what a 
condition of wreckage it was. He descended and in- 
formed the amtmann of what he had seen. Again the 
window was knocked at, and orders were repeated 
that the door should be opened. No notice was taken 
of this ; whereupon the worthy magistrate broke in a 
pane of glass, and thrust a candle through the window 
into the room. 

"I now went to the opened window, and observed 
four or five men standing with their backs against the 
door. Another lay as dead on the floor. At a little 
distance was a coil of human beings, men and women, 
lying in a heap on the floor, beside them a woman on 
her knees beating the rest, and crying out at every 
blow, ' Lord, have mercy ! ' Finally, near the stove 
was another similar group." 

The amtmann now ordered the sitting-room door 
to be broken open. Conrad Moser, who had offered 
to open to the magistrate, was rebuked by the saint, 
who cried out to him: "What, will you give admission 
to the devil ? " 

"The men," says the magistrate in his report, 
" offered resistance, excited thereto by the women 



A SWISS PASSION PLAY. 27 

who continued screaming. The holy Margaret espe- 
cially distinguished herself, and was on her knees 
vigorously beating another woman who lay fiat on the 
floor on her face. A second group consisted of a coil 
of two men and two women lying on the floor, the 
head of one woman on the body of a man, and the 
head of a man on that of a girl. The rest staggered 
to their feet one after another. I tried remonstrances, 
but they were unavailing in the hubbub. Then I 
ordered the old Peter to be removed from the room. 
Thereupon men and women flung themselves upon 
him, in spite of all our assurances that no harm would 
be done him. With difficulty we got him out of the 
room, with all the rest hanging on to him, so that he 
was thrown on the floor, and the rest clinging to him 
tumbled over him in a heap. I repeated my remon- 
strances and insisted on silence, but without avail. 
When old Peter prepared to answer, the holy Margaret 
stayed him with, 'Father, make no reply. Pray!' All 
then recommenced the uproar. Margaret cried out : 
' Let us all die ! I will die for Christ ! ' Others 
called out, ' Lord save us !' and others, ' Have mercy 
on us ! ' ' 

The amtmann gave orders that the police were to 
divide the party and keep guard over some in the 
kitchen, and the rest in the sitting-room, through the 
night, and not to allow them to speak to each other. 
The latter order was, however, more than the police 
could execute. In spite of all their efforts, Margaretta 
and the others continued to exhort and comfort one 
another through the night. 

Next morning each was brought before the magis- 



28 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

trate and subjected to examination. All were sullen, 
resolute and convinced that they were doing God's will. 
As the holy Margaretta was led away from exami- 
nation, she said to Ursula and the servant Heinricb, 
"The -world opposes, but can not frustrate my work." 

Her words came true, the world was too slow in its 
movements. The amtmann did not send in his re- 
port to the authorities of Zurich till the 16th, where- 
upon it was taken into consideration, and orders were 
transmitted to him that Margaret and Elizabeth were 
to be sent to an asylum. It was then too late. 

After the investigation, the amtmann required the 
cobbler, John Morf, to march home to Illnau, John 
and Conrad Moser to return to their home, and 
Ursula Kiindig to be sent back to her father. This 
command was not properly executed. Ursula re- 
mained, and though John Moser obeyed, he was pre- 
pared to return to the holy Margaret directly he was 
summoned. 

As soon as the high priestess had come out of the 
room where she had been examined by the amtmann, 
she went to her own bed-chamber, where boards had 
been laid over the gaps between the rafters broken by 
the axes and picks, during the night. Elizabeth, 
Susanna, Ursula, and the maid sat or stood round her 
and prayed. 

At eight o'clock, the father and his son, Caspar, 
rejoined her, also her eldest sister, Barbara, arrived 
from Trttllikon. The servant, Heinrich, formed one 
more in the re-assembled community, and the ensuing 
night was passed in prayer and spiritual exercises. 
These were not conducted in quiet. To the exhor- 



A S IV/SS PASSION PL A Y. 29 

tations of Margaret, both Elizabeth and the house- 
maid entreated that the devil might be beaten out of 
them. But now Ursula interfered, as the poor girl 
Elizabeth had been badly bruised in her bosom by 
the blows she had received on the preceding night. 
When the Saturday morning dawned, Margaret stood 
up on her bed and said, "I see the many souls seeking 
salvation through me. They must be assisted ; would 
that a sword were in my hand that I might fight for 
them." A little later she said, with a sigh of relief, 
*' The Lamb has conquered. Go to your work." 

Tranquillity lasted for but a few hours. Magdalena, 
Moser's wife, had arrived, together with her husband 
and Conrad. The only one missing was the dearly 
beloved Jacob, who was far on his way homeward to 
Illnau and his hardly used wife, Regula. 

At ten o'clock, the old father, his five daughters, his 
son, the two brothers, John and Conrad Moser, Ursula 
Ktindig, the maid Jaggli, and the man Heinrich Ernst, 
twelve in all, were assembled in the upper room. 

Margaret and Elizabeth sat side by side on the bed, 
the latter half stupified, looking fixedly before her, 
Margaret, however, in a condition of violent nervous 
surrexitation. Many of the weapons used in wreck- 
ing the furniture lay about; among these were the 
large hammer, and an iron wedge used for splitting 
wood. All there assembled felt that something extra- 
ordinary was about to happen. They had everyone 
passed the line that divides healthy common-sense 
from mania. 

Margaretta now solemnly announced, " I have given 
a pledge for many souls that Satan may not have them. 



3 o HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

Among these is the soul of my brother Caspar. But 
I cannot conquer in the strife for him without the 
shedding of blood." Thereupon she bade all present 
recommence beating themselves with their fists, so as 
to expel the devil, and they executed her orders with 
wildest fanaticism. 

The holy maid now laid hold of the iron wedge, 
drew her brother Caspar to her, and said, " Behold, 
the Evil One is striving to possess thy soul ! " and 
thereupon she began to strike him on head and breast 
with the wedge. Caspar staggered back ; she pursued 
him striking him, and cutting his head open, so that 
he was covered with blood. As he afterwards de- 
clared, he had not the smallest thought of resistance ; 
the power to oppose her seemed to be taken from him. 
At length, half stunned, he fell to the ground, and 
was carried to his bed by his father and the 
maid Jaggli. The old man no more returned up- 
stairs, consequently he was not present at the terrible 
scene that ensued. But he took no steps to prevent 
it. Not only so, but he warded off all interruption 
from without. Whilst he was below, someone knocked 
at the door. At that moment Susanna was in the room 
with him, and he bade her inquire who was without. 
The man gave his name as Elias Vogel, a mason, and 
asked leave to come in. Old Peter refused, as he said 
the surgeon was within. Elias endeavoured to push 
his way in but was resisted, and the door barred 
against him. Vogel went away, and meeting a police- 
man told him what had taken place, and added that 
he had noticed blood-stains on the sleeves of both old 
Peter and Susanna. The policeman, thinking that 



A SWISS PASSION PLAY. 31 

Peter's lie was truth, and that the surgeon was really 
in the house, and had been bleeding the half crazy 
people there, took no further notice of what he had 
heard, and went his way. 

Meanwhile, in the upper room the comedy had 
been changed into a ghastly tragedy. As soon as 
the wounded Caspar had been removed, the three 
sisters, Barbara, Magdalena, and Susanna left the 
room, the two latter, however, only for a short while. 
Then the holy Margaret said to those who remained 
with her, " To-day is a day of great events. The 
contest has been long and must now be decided. 
Blood must flow. I see the spirit of my mother call- 
ing to me to offer up my life." After a pause she 
said, " And you — all — are you ready to give your 
lives?" They all responded eagerly that they were. 
Then said Margaret, " No, no ; I see you will not 
readily die. But I — I must die." 

Thereupon Elizabeth exclaimed, " I will gladly die 
for the saving of the souls of my brother and father. 
Strike me dead, strike me dead ! " Then she threw 
herself on the bed and began to batter her head with 
a wooden mallet. 

" It has been revealed to me," said Margaret, " that 
Elizabeth will sacrifice herself." Then taking up the 
iron hammer, she struck her sister on the head. At 
once a spiritual fury seized on all the elect souls, and 
seizing weapons they began to beat the poor girl to 
death. Margaret in her mania struck at random 
about her, and wounded both John Moser and Ursula 
Ktindig. Then she suddenly caught the latter by the 
wrist and bade her kill Elizabeth with the iron 



32 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

wedge. Ursula shrank back, " I cannot ! I love 
her too dearly!" "You must," screamed the saint; "it 
is ordained." "I am ready to die," moaned Elizabeth. 
" I cannot ! I cannot ! " cried Ursula. " You must," 
shouted Margaret. "I will raise my sister again, and 
I also will rise again after three days. May God 
strengthen your arm." 

As though a demoniacal influence flowed out of the 
holy maid, and maddened those about her, all were 
again seized with frenzy. John Moser snatched the 
hammer out of her hand, and smote the prostrate girl 
with it again, and yet again, on head and bosom and 
shoulders. Susanna brought down a crow-bar across 
her body, the servant-man Heinrich belaboured her 
with a fragment of the floor planking, and Ursula, 
swept away by the current, beat in her skull with the 
wedge. Throughout the turmoil, the holy maid 
yelled : " God strengthen your arms ! Ursula, strike 
home ! Die for Christ, Elizabeth ! " The last words 
heard from the martyred girl were an exclamation of 
resignation to the will of God, as expressed by her 
sister. 

One would have supposed that when the life was 
thus battered out of the unfortunate victim, the 
murderers would have come to their senses and been 
filled with terror and remorse. But it was not so. 
Margaret sat beside the body of her murdered sister, 
the blaze of spiritual ecstasy in her eyes, the blood- 
stained hammer in her right hand, terrible in her in- 
flexible determination, and in the demoniacal energy 
which was to possess her to the last breath she drew. 
Her bosom heaved, her body quivered, but her voice 



A S WISS PASSION PLA Y. 33 

was firm and her tone authoritative, as she said, 
" More blood must flow. I have pledged myself for 
the saving of many souls. I must die now. You 
must crucify me." John Moser and Ursula, shivering 
with horror, entreated, " O do not demand that of us." 
She replied, " It is better that I should die than that 
thousands of souls should perish." 

So saying she struck herself with the hammer on 
the left temple. Then she held out the weapon to 
John Moser, and ordered him and Ursula to batter 
her with it. Both hesitated for a moment. 

"What!" cried Margaret turning to her favourite dis- 
ciple," will you not do this ? Strike, and may God brace 
your arm ! " Moser and Ursula now struck her with 
the hammer, but not so as to stun her. 

"And now," said she with raised voice, "crucify 
me ! You, Ursula, must do the deed." 

" I cannot ! I cannot ! " sobbed the wretched girl. 
" What! will you withdraw your hand from the work 
of God, now the hour approaches ? You will be re- 
sponsible for all the souls that will be lost, unless you 
fulfil what I have appointed you to do." 
" But O ! not I—! " pleaded Ursula. 
" Yes — you. If the police authorities had executed 
me, it would not have fallen to you to do this, but 
now it is for you to accomplish the work. Go, Susan, 
and fetch nails, and the rest of you make ready the 
cross." 

In the meantime, Heinrich, the man-servant, 
frightened at what had taken place, and not wishing 
to have anything more to do with the horrible scene 
in the upper chamber, had gone quietly down into 



34 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

the wood-house, and was making stakes for the vines. 
There Susanna found him, and asked him for nails, 
telling him for what they were designed. He com- 
posedly picked her out nails of suitable length, and 
then resumed his work of making vine stakes. 
Susanna re-ascended to the upper room, and found 
Margaret extended on the bed beside the body of 
Elizabeth, with the arms, breast, and feet resting on 
blocks of wood, arranged, whilst Susanna was absent, 
by John Moser and Ursula, under her in the fashion 
of a cross. 

Then began the horrible act of crucifixion, which is 
only conceivable as an outburst of religious mania, 
depriving all who took part in it of every feeling of 
humanity, and degrading them to the level of beasts 
of prey. At the subsequent trial, both Ursula and 
John Moser described their condition as one of spiritual 
intoxication. 

The hands and feet of the victim were nailed to 
the blocks of wood. Then Ursula's head swam, and she 
drew back. Again Margaret called her to continue 
her horrible work. " Go on ! go on ! God strengthen 
your arm. I will raise Elizabeth from the dead, and 
rise myself in three days." Nails were driven through 
both elbows and also through the breasts of Margaret; 
not for one moment did the victim express pain, nor 
did her courage fail her. No Indian at the stake 
endured the cruel ingenuity of his tormentors with 
more stoicism than did this young woman bear the 
martyrdom she had invoked for herself. She im- 
pressed her murderers with the idea that she was 
endowed with supernatural strength. It could not be 



A SWISS PASSION PLAY. 35 

otherwise, for what she endured was beyond the 
measure of human strength. That in the place of 
human endurance she was possessed with the 
Berserker strength of the furor religiosus, was what 
these ignorant peasants could not possibly know. 
Conrad Moser could barely support himself from 
fainting, sick and horror-struck at the scene. He 
exclaimed, " Is not this enough ? " His brother, John, 
standing at the foot of the bed, looked into space with 
glassy eyes. Ursula, bathed in tears, was bowed over 
the victim. Magdalena Moser had taken no active 
part in the crucifixion ; she remained the whole time, 
weeping, leaning against a chest. 

The dying woman smiled. " I feel no pain. Be 
yourselves strong," she whispered. " Now, drive a 
nail or a knife through my heart." 

Ursula endeavoured to do as bidden, but her hand 
shook and the knife was bent. " Beat in my skull ! " 
this was the last word spoken by Margaret. In 
their madness Conrad Moser and Ursula Ktindig 
obeyed, one with the crowbar, the other with the 
hammer. 

It was noon when the sacrifice was accomplished, — 
dinner-time. Accordingly, all descended to the 
sitting-room, where the meal that Margaret Jaggli 
had been in the meantime preparing was served and 
eaten. 

They had scarce finished before a policeman entered 
with a paper for old Peter to sign, in which he made 
himself answerable to produce his daughters before 
the magistrates when and where required. He signed 
it with composure, " I declare that I will cause my 



36 HISTORIC ODDITIES, 

daughters, if in good health, to appear before the Upper 
Amtsmann in Andelfingen when so required." Then 
the policeman departed without a suspicion that the two 
girls were lying dead in the room above. On Sunday 
the 1 6th, the servant Heinrich was sent on horseback 
to Illnau to summon Jacob Morf to come to Wildisbuch 
and witness a great miracle. Jacob came there with 
Heinrich, but was not told the circumstances of the 
crucifixion till he reached the house. When he heard 
what had happened, he was frightened almost out of 
his few wits, and when taken upstairs to see the 
bodies, he fainted away. Nothing — no representations 
would induce him to remain for the miraculous 
resurrection, and he hastened back to Illnau, where 
he took to his bed. In his alarm and horror he 
sent for the pastor, and told him what he had 
seen. 

But the rest of the holy community remained stead- 
fast in their faith. On the night of Sunday before 
Monday morning broke, Ursula Kiindigand the servant 
man Heinrich went upstairs with pincers and drew out 
the nails that transfixed Margaretta. When asked 
their reason for so doing, at the subsequent trial, they 
said that they supposed this would facilitate 
Margaretta's resurrection. Sanctus furor had made 
way for sancta simplicitas. 

The night of Monday to Tuesday was spent in 
prayer and Scripture-reading in the upper chamber, 
and eager expectation of the promised miracle, which 
never took place. The catastrophe could no longer 
be concealed. Something must be done. On Tues- 
day, old John Peter pulled on his jacket and walked 



A SWISS PASSION PLAY. 37 

to Triillikon to inform the pastor that his daughter 
Elizabeth had died on the Saturday at io a.m., and 
his daughter Margaretta at noon of the same day. 

We need say little more. On Dec. 3rd, 1823, the 
trial of all incriminated in this frightful tragedy took 
place at Zurich and sentence was pronounced on the 
following day. Ursula Ktindig was sentenced to six- 
teen years' imprisonment, Conrad Moser and John 
Peter to eight years, Susanna Peter and John Moser to 
six years, Heinrich Ernst to four years, Jacob Morf 
to three, Margaret Jaggli to two years, Barbara Bau- 
mann and Casper Peter to one year, and Magdalena 
Moser to six months with hard labour. The house at 
Wildisbuch was ordered to be levelled with the dust, 
the plough drawn over the foundation, and that no 
house should again be erected on the spot. 

Before the destruction, however, a pilgrimage of 
Pietists and believers in Margaret Peter had visited 
the scene of her death, and many had been the ex- 
clamations of admiration at her conduct. " Oh, that 
it had been I who had died ! " " Oh, how many souls 
must she have delivered ! " and the like. Magna est 
stultitia et prmvalebit. 

At a time like the present, when there is a wave of 
warm, mystic fever sweeping over the country, and 
carrying away with it thousands of ignorant and im- 
petuous souls, it is well that the story — repulsive 
though it be— should be brought into notice, as a 
warning of what this spiritual excitement may lead to 
— not, indeed, again, maybe, into bloodshed. It is far 
more likely to lead to, as it has persistently, in every 
similar outbreak, into moral disorders, the record of 



38 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

which, in the case of Margaretta Peter, we have 
passed over almost without a word. 

Authority : Die Gekreuzigte von Wildisbuch, von J. Scherr, 
2nd Edit., St. Gall. 1867. Sherr visited the spot, collected in- 
formation from eye-witnesses, and made copious extracts from 
the records of the trial in the Zurich archives, where they are 
contained in Vol. 166, folio 1044, under the heading: "Akten 
betreffened die Grauel — Scenen in Wildisbuch." 



a IRortbern IRapbaeL 

HERE and there in the galleries of North Germany 
and Russia may be seen paintings of delicacy and 
purity, delicacy of colour and purity of design, the 
author of which was Gerhard von Kttgelgen. The 
majority of his paintings are in private hands ; but 
an Apollo, holding the dying Hyacinthus in his arms, 
is in the possession of the German Emperor; Moses on 
Horeb is in the gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts 
at Dresden ; a St. Caecilia and an Adonis, painted in 
1794 and 1795, were purchased by the Earl of Bristol; 
a Holy Family is in the Gallery at Cassel ; and some 
of the sacred subjects have found their way into 
churches. 

In 1772, the wife of Franz Ktigelgen, a merchant of 
Bacharach on the Rhine, presented her husband with 
twin sons, the elder of whom by fifteen minutes is the 
subject of this notice. His brother was named Karl. 
Their resemblance was so great that even their mother 
found a difficulty in their early childhood in distin- 
guishing one from the other. 

Bacharach was in the Electorate of Co'ogne, and 

when the Archbishop-Elector, Maximilian Franz, 

learned that the twins were fond of art, in 1791, he 

very liberally gave them a handsome sum of money 

to enable them to visit Rome and there prosecute their 

studies. 

39 



4 o HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

Gerhard was at once fascinated by the statuary in 
the Vatican, and by the pictures of Raphael. The 
ambition of his life thenceforward was to combine the 
beauty of modelling of the human form that he saw 
in the Graeco-Roman statues with the beauty of 
colour that he recognised in Raphael's canvases. 
Karl, on the other hand, devoted himself to land- 
scapes. 

In 1795 the brothers separated, Gerhard that he 
might visit Munich. Thence, in the autumn, he went 
to Riga with a friend, and there he remained rather 
over two years, and painted and disposed of some 
fifty-four pictures. Then he painted in St. Petersburg 
and Reval, and finally settled into married life and 
regular work at Dresden in 1806. There he became 
a general favourite, not only on account of his artistic 
genius, but also because of the fascination of his 
modest and genial manner, He was honoured by the 
Court, and respected by everyone for his virtues. 
Orders flowed in on him, and his paintings com- 
manded good prices. The king of Saxony ennobled 
him, that is to say, raised him out of the btirger-stand, 
by giving him the privilege of writing a Von before 
his patronymic. 

Having received an order from Riga for a large 
altar picture, he bought a vineyard on the banks of 
the Elbe, commanding a charming prospect of the 
river and the distant blue Bohemian mountains. 
Here he resolved to erect a country house for the 
summer, with a large studio lighted from the north. 
The construction of this residence was to him a great 
pleasure and occupation. In November, 1819, he 



A NORTHERN RAPHAEL. 41 

wrote to his brother, " My house shall be to us a 
veritable fairy palace, in which to dwell till the time 
comes, when through a little, narrow and dark door 
we pass through into that great habitation of the 
Heavenly Father in which are many mansions, and 
where our whole family will be re-united. Should it 
please God to call me away, then Lily (his wife) 
will find this an agreeable dower-house, in which 
she can supervise the education of the children, 
as the distance from the town is only an hour's 
walk." 

The words were written, perhaps, without much 
thought, but they foreshadowed a terrible catastrophe. 
Ktigelgen would pass, before his fairy palace was 
ready to receive him, through that little, narrow door 
into the heavenly mansions. 

The Holy Week of 1820 found him in a condition 
of singularly deep religious emotion. He was a 
Catholic, but had, nevertheless, allow r ed his son to be 
confirmed by a Protestant pastor. The ceremony had 
greatly affected him, and he said to a friend, who was 
struck at the intensity of his feeling, " I know I shall 
never be as happy again till I reach Heaven." 

On March 27th, on the very day of the confirma- 
tion, he went in the afternoon a walk by himself to 
his vineyard, to look at his buildings. He invited 
one of his pupils to accompany him, but the young 
man had some engagement and declined. 

At 5 p.m. he was at the new house, where he paid 
the workmen, gave some instructions, and pointed out 
where he would do some planting, so as to enhance 
the picturesqueness of the spot. At some time be- 



42 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

tween six and seven he left, to walk back to Dresden, 
along the road from Bautzen. 

Every one who has been at the Saxon capital 
knows that road. The right bank of the Elbe above 
Dresden rises in picturesque heights covered with 
gardens and vineyards, from the river, and about a 
mile from the bridge is the Linkes Bad, with its plea- 
sant gardens, theatre, music and baths. That road is 
one of the most charming, and, therefore, the most 
frequented outside the capital. On the evening in 
question the Easter moon was shining. 

Kugelgen did not return home. His wife sent his 
son, the just confirmed boy, aged ly years, to the new 
house, to inquire for her husband. The boy learned 
there that he had left some hours before. He returned 
home, and found that still his father had not come 
in. The police were communicated with, and the 
night was spent in inquiries and search, but all in 
vain. On the following morning, at 9 a.m., as the 
boy was traversing the same road, along with a 
gensdarme, he deemed it well to explore a footpath 
beside the river, which was overflowed by the Elbe > 
and there, finally, amongst some reeds they discovered 
the dead body of the artist, stripped of his clothes to 
his shirt and drawers, lying on his face. 

Gerhard von Kugelgen had been murdered. His 
features were cut and bruised, his left temple and jaw 
were broken. Footsteps, as of two persons, were 
traceable through the river mud and across a field to 
the highway. Apparently the artist had been mur- 
dered on the road, then carried or dragged to the 
path, stripped there, and then cast among the rushes 



A NORTHERN RAPHAEL. 43 

About twenty-four paces from where he lay, between 
him and the highway, his cap was found. 

The excitement, the alarm, aroused in Dresden 
was immense. Not only was Kiigelgen universally 
respected, but everyone was in dismay at the thought 
that his own safety was jeopardised, if a murder such 
as this could be perpetrated on the open road, within 
a few paces of the gates. Indeed, the place where 
the crime was committed was but a hundred strides 
from the Linkes Bad, one of the most popular resorts 
of the Dresdeners. 

It was now remembered that only a few months 
before, near the same spot, another murder had been 
committed, that had remained undiscovered. In 
that case the victim had been a poor carpenter's 
apprentice. 

On the same day as the body of Kiigelgen was 
found, the Government offered a sum equal to .£150 
for the discovery of the murderer. A little later, some 
children found among the rubbish, outside the Black 
Gate of the Dresdener Vorstadt, a blue cloth cloak, 
folded up and buried under some stones. It was 
recognised as having belonged to Kiigelgen. More- 
over, in the pocket was the little "Thomas-a-Kempis" 
he always carried about with him. 

It was concluded that the murderer had not ven- 
tured to bring all the clothing of Kiigelgen into the 
town, through the gate, and had, therefore, hidden 
portions in places whence he could remove them one 
by one, unobserved. The murderer was, undoubtedly, 
an inhabitant of the city. 

From March 29th to April 4th the police remained 



44 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

without any clue, although a description of the gar- 
ments worn by the murdered man, and of his watch, 
was posted up at every corner, and sent round to the 
nearest towns and villages. 

The workmen who had been engaged on Ktigelgen's 
house were brought before the police. They had left 
after his departure, and had received money from 
him ; but they were discharged, as there was no evi- 
dence against them. 

As no light seemed to fall on this mysterious case, 
the police looked up the circumstances of the previous 
murder. On December 29th, 18 19, a carrier on the 
highroad had found a body on the way. It was 
ascertained to be that of a carpenter's apprentice, 
named Winter. His skull had been broken in. Not 
a trace of the murderer was found ; not even foot- 
prints had been obsesved. However, it was learned 
that the wife of a labouier had been attacked almost 
at the same spot, on the 28th December, by a man 
wearing a military cap and cloak ; and she had only 
escaped him by the approach of a carriage, the sound 
of the wheels having alarmed him, and induced him 
to fly. He had fled in the direction of the Black 
•Gate and the barracks. 

The anxiety of the Dresdeners seemed justified. 
There was some murderous ruffian inhabiting the Vor- 
stadt, who hovered about the gates, waylaying, not 
wealthy men only, but poor charwomen and apprentices. 

The military cloak and cap, the direction taken by 
the assailant in his flight, gave a sort of clue— and the 
police suspected that the murderer must be sought 
amongr the soldiers. 



A NORTHERN RAPHAEL. 45, 

On April 4th two Jewish pawnbrokers appeared 
before the police, and handed over a silver watch 
which had been left with them at 9 a.m. on the 20th 
March — that is to say on the morning after the 
murder of Kiigelgen — and which agreed with the 
advertised description of the artist's lost watch. It 
was identified at once. The man who had pawned it, 
the Jews said, wore the uniform of an artillery soldier. 

At the request of the civil authorities, the military 
officers held an inquisition in the barracks. All the 
artillery soldiers were made to pass before the Jew 
brokers, but they were unable to identify the man who 
had deposited the watch with them. Somewhat later 
in the day one of these Jews, as he was going through 
the street, saw a man in civil dress, whom he thought 
he recognised as the fellow who had given him the 
watch. He went up to him at once and spoke about 
the watch, The man at first acknowledged that he 
had pawned one, then denied, and threatened the Jew 
when he persevered in clinging to him. Agensdarme 
came up, and hearing what the controversy was about 
arrested the man, who gave his name as Fischer, a 
gunner. 

Fischer was at once examined, and he doggedly 
refused to allow that he had given up a watch to 
the Jew. 

Suspicion against him was deepened by his declaring 
that he had heard nothing of the murder — a matter of 
general talk in Dresden — and that he had not seen 
the notices with the offer of reward for the discovery 
of the murderer. On the following day, April 5th, 
however, he admitted having pawned the watch, which 



46 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

he pretended to have found outside the Black Gate. 
A few hours later he withdrew this confession, saying 
that he was so bewildered with the questions put to 
him, and so alarmed at his arrest, that he did not 
well know what he said. It was observed that Fischer 
was a man of very low intellectual power. 

The same day he was invested in his uniform, and 
presented before the pawnbrokers. Both unanimously 
declared that he was not the man who had entered 
their shop and deposited the watch with them. They 
both declared that though Fischer had the same 
height and general build as the man in question, and 
the same fair hair, yet that the face was different. 

With this, the case against Fischer broke down ; 
nevertheless, though he had been handed over by the 
military authorities to the civil power, he remained 
under arrest. The public was convinced of his guilt, 
and the police hoped by keeping him in prison to 
draw from him later some information which might 
prove serviceable. 

And, in fact, after he had been a fortnight under 
arrest, he volunteered a statement. He was con- 
ducted at once before the magistrate, and confessed 
that he had murdered Von Ktigelgen. He, however, 
stoutly denied having laid hands on the carpenter 
Winter. Nevertheless, on the way back to his cell he 
told his gaoler that he had committed this murder as, 
well. Next day he was again brought before the 
magistrate, and confessed to both murders. He was 
taken to the spots where the two corpses had been 
found, and there he renewed his confession, though 
without entering into any details. 



A NORTHERN RAPHAEL. 47 

But on the next morning, April 21, he begged to 
be again heard, and he then asserted that his former 
confessions were false. He had confessed merely 
because he was weary of his imprisonment and the 
poor food he was given, and decided to die. When 
spoken to by the magistrate seriously, and remon- 
strated with for his contradictions, he cried out that 
he was innocent. Let them torture him as much as 
they pleased, he wished to die. 

But hardly was he back in his prison than he told 
the gaoler that it was true that he was the murderer 
of both Ktigelgen and Winter. Again he confessed 
before the magistrate, and again, on the 27th, with- 
drew his confession and protested his innocence. 

On the 2 1st April a new element in the case came 
to light that perplexed the question not a little. 

A Jewish pawnbroker, Lobel Graff, announced that 
on February 3, 1820, he had received from the gunner 
Kaltofen a green coat, and on the 4th April a dark- 
blue cloth coat, stained with spots of oil, also a pair 
of cloth trousers. As both coats seemed to him 
suspicious, and to resemble those described in the 
advertisements, he had questioned Kaltofen about 
them, but had received equivocal answers, and 
Kaltofen at last admitted that he had bought them 
from the gunner Fischer. 

John Gottfried Kaltofen was a young man of 24 
years, servant to one of the officers, and therefore did 
not live in the barracks. He was now taken up. His 
manner and appearance were in his favour. He was 
frank, and at once admitted that he had disposed of 
the two coats to Graff, and that he had bought them 



4 8 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

of Fischer. On confrontation with the latter he 
repeated what he had said. Fischer fell into con- 
fusion, denied all knowledge of Kaltofen, protested 
his innocence, and denied the sale of the coats, one of 
which had in the meantime been identified as having 
belonged to Winter, and the other to Kiigelgen. 

On April 27th a search was made in the lodgings 
of Kaltofen, and three keys were found there, hidden 
away, and these proved to have belonged to Kiigelgen. 
At first Kaltofen declared that he knew nothing of 
these keys, but afterwards said that he remembered 
on consideration that he had found them in the 
pocket of the blue coat he had purchased from 
Fischer, and had put them away before disposing of 
the coat, and had given them no further thought. 
Not many minutes after Fischer had been sent back to 
prison, he begged to be brought before the magistrate 
again, and now admitted that it was quite true that 
he had sold both coats to Kaltofen. 

Whilst this confession was being taken down, how- 
ever, he again hesitated, broke down, and denied 
having sold them to Kaltofen, or any one else. " I 
can't say anything more," he cried out; " my head is 
dazed." 

By this statement he remained, protesting his 
innocence, and he declared that he had only confessed 
his guilt because he was afraid of ill-treatment in the 
prison if he continued to assert his innocence. It 
must he remembered that the gaolers were as con- 
vinced of his guilt as were the public of Dresden ; and 
it is noticeable that under pressure from them Fischer 
always acknowledged his guilt ; whereas, when before 



A NORTHERN RAPHAEL. 49 

the magistrates he was ready to proclaim that he was 
innocent. At this time it was part of the duty of a 
gaoler, or was supposed to be such, to use every 
possible effort to bring a prisoner to confession. And 
now, on April 27th, a third gunner appeared on the 
scene. His name was Kiessling, and he asked the 
magistrate to take down his statement, which was to 
the effect that Kaltofen, who had been discharged, 
had admitted to him that he had murdered Kiigelgen 
with a cudgel, and that he had still got some of his 
garments hidden in his lodgings. But — so said 
Kiessling — Kaltofen had jauntily said he would lay 
it all on Fischer. Kiessling, moreover, produced a 
pair of boots, that he said Kaltofen had left with him 
to be re-soled, as he was regimental shoemaker. And 
these boots were at once recognised as having been 
those worn by Kiigelgen when he was murdered. 

Kaltofen was at once re-arrested, and brought into 
confrontation with Kiessling. He retained his com- 
posure, and said that it was quite true that he had given 
a pair of boots to Kiessling to re-sole, but they were a 
pair that he had bought in the market. But, in the 
meantime, another investigation of his lodgings had 
been made, and a number of articles found that had 
certainly belonged to the murdered men, Winter and 
Kiigelgen. They were ranged on the table, together 
with the pair of boots confided to Kiessling, and 
Kaltofen was shown them. Hitherto, the young man 
had displayed phlegmatic composure, and an open- 
ness of manner that had impressed all who saw him 
in his favour. His intelligence, had, moreover, con- 
trasted favourably with that of Fischer. But the 



50 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

sight of all these articles, produced before him, 
staggered Kaltofen, and, losing his presence of mind, 
he turned in a fury upon his comrade, the shoemaker, 
and swore at him for having betrayed his confidence. 
Only after he had poured forth a torrent of abuse, 
could the magistrate bring him to say anything about 
the charge, and then — still hot and panting from his 
onslaught on Kiessling — he admitted that he, not 
Fischer, was the murderer in both cases. Fischer, he 
said, was wholly innocent, not only of participation in, 
but of knowledge of the crimes. The summary of his 
confession, oft repeated and never withdrawn, was as 
follows :— Being in need of money, he had gone out- 
side the town thrice in one week, at the end of 
December, 1819, with the intent of murdering and 
robbing the first person he could attack with security. 
For this purpose, he had provided himself with a 
cudgel under his cloak. On the 29th December he 
selected Winter as his first victim. He allowed him 
to pass, then stole after him, and suddenly dealt him 
a blow on the back of his head, before the young man 
turned to see who was following him. Winter 
dropped, whereupon he, Kaltofen, had struck him 
twice again on the head. Then he divested his . 
victim of collar, coat, hat, kerchief, watch, and a 
little money — not more than four shillings in English 
coins, and a few tools. He was engaged on pulling 
off his boots and trousers, when he was alarmed by 
hearing the tramp of horses and the sound of wheels, 
and he ran off across the fields with his spoil. He got 
Kiessling to dispose of the hat for him, the other 
articles he himself sold to Jews. Whether it was he 



A NORTHERN RAPHAEL. 51 

also who assaulted the poor woman we are not in- 
formed. In like manner Kaltofen proceeded with 
Ktigelgen. He was again in want of money. He 
had been gambling, and had lost what little he had 
On the Monday in Holy Week, 1820, he took his 
cudgel again and went out along the Bautzen Road. 
The moon shone brightly, and he met a gentleman 
walking slowly towards Dresden, in a blue cloak. He 
allowed him to pass, then followed him. As a woman 
was walking in the same direction, but at a quicker rate,, 
he delayed his purpose till she had disappeared be- 
hind the first houses of the suburb. Then he hastened 
on, walking lightly, and springing up behind Kiigelgen, 
struck him on the right temple with his cudgel from 
behind. Ktigelgen fell without uttering a cry, 
Kaltofen at once seized him by the collar and dragged 
him across a field to the edge of the river. There he 
dealt him several additional blows, and then pro- 
ceeded to strip him. Whilst thus engaged, he 
remembered that the dead man had dropped his 
walking-stick on the high road when first struck. 
Kaltofen at once desisted from what he was about, to 
return to the road and recover the walking-stick. On 
coming back to his victim, he thought there was still 
life in him; Ktigelgen was moving and endeavouring 
to rise. Whereupon, with his cudgel, Kaltofen re- 
peatedly struck him, till all signs of life disappeared. 
He now completed his work of spoliation, pulled off 
the boots, untied the neckerchief, and ransacked the 
pockets. He found in addition to the watch the sum 
of about half-a-guinea. He then stole away among 
the rushes till he reached the Linkes Bad, where he 



52 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

returned to the main road. He concealed the cloak 
at the Black Gate, but carried the rest of his plunder 
to his lodgings. 

His confession was confirmed by several circum- 
stances. Kiessling was again required to repeat what 
he had heard from Kaltofen, and the story as told by 
him agreed exactly with that now confessed by the 
murderer. Kiessling added that Kaltofen had told 
him he was puzzled to account for Fischer's self- 
examination, as he knew that the man had nothing 
to do with the murder. A third examination of 
Kaltofen's lodgings resulted in the discovery of all 
the rest of the murdered man's effects. Moreover, 
when Kaltofen was confronted with the two Jews 
who had taken the silver watch on the 24th, they 
immediately recognised him as the man who had 
disposed of it to them. 

Finally, he confessed to having been associated 
with Kiessling in two robberies, one of which was a 
burglarious attack on his own master. 

The case was made out clearly enough against 
Kaltofen, and it seemed equally clear that Fischer 
was innocent. Moreover, from the 24th April on- 
wards, Fischer never swerved from his protestation of 
complete innocence. When questioned why he had 
confessed himself guilty, he said that he had been 
pressed to do so by the gaoler, who had several times 
fastened him for a whole night into the stocks, and 
had threatened him with severer measures unless he ad- 
mitted his guilt. The gaoler admitted having so 
treated Fischer once, but Fischer insisted that he had 
been thus tortured on two consecutive nights. 



A NORTHERN RAPHAEL. 53 

It was ascertained that Fischer had not only known 
about the murder of Kiigelgen, but had attended his 
funeral, and yet he had pretended entire, or almost 
entire, ignorance when first arrested. When asked to 
explain this, he replied that he was so frightened that 
he took refuge in lies. That he was a dull-minded, 
extremely ignorant man, was obvious to the judges 
and to all who had to do with him ; he was aged 
thirty, and had spent thirteen years in the army, had 
conducted himself well, but had never been trusted 
with any important duties on account of his stupidity. 
He had a dull eye, and a heavy countenance. 
Kaltofen, on the other hand, was a good-looking, well- 
built young fellow, of twenty-four, with a bright, 
intelligent face ; his education was above what was 
ordinary in his class. It was precisely this that had 
excited in him vanity, and craving for pleasures and 
amusements which he could not afford. His obliging 
manners, his trimness, and cheerfulness, had made 
him a favourite with the officers. 

As already intimated, he was fond of play, and it 
was this that had induced him to commit his 
murders. He admitted that he had felt little or no 
compunction, and he said frankly that it was as well 
for society that he was taken, otherwise the death of 
Kiigelgen would have been followed by others. He 
spoke of the crimes he had committed with openness 
and indifference, and maintained this condition of 
callousness to the end. It seems to have been 
customary on several occasions for the Lutheran 
pastors who attended the last hours of criminals to 
publish their opinions as to the manner in which 



54 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

they prepared for death, and their ideas as to the 
motives for the crimes committed, an eminently 
indecent proceeding to our notions. In this case, the 
■chaplain who attended on Kaltofen rushed into the 
priest after the execution. He said, " Play may have 
occasioned that want of feeling which will commit 
the most atrocious crime, without compunction, for 
the gratification of a temporary requirement. Kal- 
tofen, without being rude and rough towards his 
fellows, but on the contrary obliging and courteous, 
came to regard them with brutal indifference." Only 
twice did he feel any twinge of conscience, he said, 
once before his first murder, and again at the funeral 
of his second victim, which he attended. The 
criminal was now known, had confessed, and had 
confessed that he had no accomplice. Moreover, he 
declared that Fischer was wholly innocent. Not a 
single particle of evidence was forthcoming to in- 
criminate Fischer, apart from his own retracted con- 
fessions. Nevertheless he was not liberated. 

The police could not believe that Kaltofen had been 
without an accomplice. There were stabs in the face 
and body of Kiigelgen, and Kaltofen had professed 
to have used no other weapon than a cudgel. The 
murderer said that he had dragged the body over the 
field to the rushes, and it was agreed that there must 
have been evidence of this dragging. Some witnesses 
had, indeed, said they had seen such, but others pro- 
tested that there were footprints as of two men. 
This, however, could be explained by Kaltofen's 
admission that he had gone back to the road for the 
walking-stick. 



A NORTHERN RAPHAEL. 55 

Then, again, Fischer, when interrogated, had given 
particulars which agreed with the circumstances in a 
remarkable manner. He was asked to explain this- 
" Well," said he, " he had heard a good deal of talk 
about the murders, and he was miserable at the thought 
of spending long years in prison, and so had con- 
fessed." When asked how he knew the particulars of 
the murder of Winter, he said that he had been helped 
to it by the gaoler. He had said first, " I went to his 
left side" — whereupon the gaoler had said, "Surely 
you are wrong, it was on the right," thereat Fischer 
had corrected himself and said, " Yes, of course — on 
the right." 

The case was now ready for final sentence, and for 
this purpose all the depositions were forwarded on 
September 12th to the Judicial Court at Leipzig. 
But, before judgment was pronounced, the deposi- 
tions were hastily sent for back to Dresden — for, in the 
meantime, the case had passed into a new phase. 
On October 5th, the gaoler — the same man who had 
brought about the confession of Fischer — announced 
that Kaltofen had confided to him that Fischer really 
had been his accomplice in both the murders. Kal- 
tofen at once was summoned before the magistrate, 
and he calmly, and with emphasis, declared that 
Fischer had assisted him on both occasions, and that 
he had not allowed this before, because he and 
Fischer had sworn that neither would betray the 
other. Fischer had never mentioned his name, and 
he had accordingly done his utmost to exculpate 
Fischer. 

According to his account, he and Fischer had been 



56 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

walking together on the morning of March 26th, be- 
tween 9 and 10, when they planned a murder together 
for the following day. However, there was rebutting 
evidence to the effect that on the morning in question 
Fischer had been on guard, at the hour named, before 
the powder magazine ; he had not been released till 
noon. Other statements of Kaltofen proved to be 
equally untrue. 

What could have induced Kaltofen to deliberately 
charge a comrade in arms with participation in the 
crime, if he were guiltless ? There was no apparent 
motive He could gain no reprieve by it. It did not 
greatly diminish his own guilt. 

It was necessary to enter into as close investigation 
as was possible into the whereabouts of Fischer at the 
time of the two murders. It was not found possible 
to determine where he was at the time when Winter 
was killed, but some of his comrades swore that on 
March 27th he had been present at the roll-call at 6 
p.m., and had come into barrack before the second 
roll-call at half-past eight. The murder of Kiigelgen 
had taken place at eight o'clock, and the distance be- 
tween the barrack and the spot where it had been 
committed was 3487 paces, which would take a man 
about 25 minutes to traverse. If, as his comrades 
asserted, Fischer had come in shortly after eight, then 
it was quite impossible that he could have been 
present when Kiigelgen was murdered; but not great 
reliance can be placed on the testimony of soldiers as 
to the hour at which a comrade came into barrack 
just seven months before on a given day. 

The case was perplexing. The counsel for Fischer 



A NORTHERN RAPHAEL. ST 

— his name was Eisenstlick — took a bold line of de- 
fence. He charged the gaolor with having manipu- 
lated Kaltofen, as he had Fischer. This gaoler's self- 
esteem was wounded by the discovery that Kaltofen 
and not Fischer was the murderer, and his credit was 
damaged by the proceedings which showed that he 
had goaded an unhappy man, confided to his care, into 
charging himself with a crime he had never com- 
mitted. Eisenstlick asserted that this new charge was 
fabricated in the prison by the gaoler in concert with 
Kaltofen for his own justification. But, whatever 
may be thought of the character and conduct of this 
turnkey, it is difficult to understand how he could pre- 
vail on a cool-headed man like Kaltofen thus to take 
on himself the additional guilt of perjury, and such 
perjury as risked the life of an innocent man. 
Kaltofen never withdrew this assertion that Fischer 
was an accomplice. He persisted in it to his last 
breath. 

The depositions were again sent to the faculty at 
Leipzig, on Dec. 1 8th, to give judgment on the fol- 
lowing points. 

1. The examination of the body of Ktigelgen had 

revealed stabs made with a sharp, two-edged in- 
strument, as well as blows dealt by a blunt 
weapon. Kaltofen would admit that he had 
used no other instrument than a cudgel. 

2. It would have been a difficult matter for one man 

to drag a dead body from the road to the bed of 
rushes, without leaving unmistakable traces on 
the field traversed ; and such were not, for 
certain, found. It was therefore more probable 



58 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

that the dead man had been carried by two per- 
sons to the place where found. 
It must be observed that crowds poured out of 
Dresden to see the place where the body lay as soon 
as it was known that Kiigelgen had been discovered, 
and consequently no accurate and early examination 
of tracks across the field had been made. 

3. That it would have been difficult for Kaltofen 

alone to strip the body. This may be doubted; 
it would be difficult possibly, but not impossible, 
whilst the body was flexible. 

4. A witness had said that she had met two men out- 

side the Black Gate on the evening of the 27th 
March, of whom one was wrapped in a cloak and 
seemed to be carrying something under it. We 
should much like to know when the woman gave 
this evidence. Unfortunately, that is what is not 
told us. 

5. Kaltofen, in a letter to his parents, had stated that 

he had an accomplice, but had not named him. 

These were the points that made it appear that 
Kaltofen had an accomplice. An accomplice in some 
of his crimes he had — Kiessling. 

There were other points that made it appear that 
Fischer had assisted him in the murders. 

6. Fischer's denial that he knew anything about the 

murder of Kiigelgen when he was arrested, 
whereas it was established that he had attended 
the funeral of the murdered man. 

7. His repeated confessions that he had assisted at 

the murders, and his acquaintance with the par- 
ticulars and with the localties. 



A NORTHERN RAPHAEL. 59 

8. Kaltofen's asservations that Fischer was his 
associate in the murders. 

In favour of Fischer it may be said that his conduct 
in the army had for thirteen years been uniformly 
good, and there was no evidence that he had been in 
any way guilty of dishonesty. Nor was he a man of 
extravagant habits like Kaltofen, needing money for 
his pleasures. He was a simple, inoffensive, and very 
stupid man. His confessions lose all their effect when 
we consider how they were extorted from him by 
undue influence. 

Against Kaltofen's later accusation must he set his 
repeated declaration, during six months, that Fischer 
was innocent. Not only this, but his assertion in 
confidence to Kiessling that he was puzzled what 
could have induced Fischer to avow himself guilty of 
a crime, of which he — Kaltofen — knew him to be 
innocent. When Kiessling gave this evidence on 
April 24th, Kaltofen did not deny that he had said 
this, but flew into a paroxysm of fury with his 
comrade for betraying their private conversation. 

Again, not a single article appertaining to either of 
the murdered men was found with Fischer. All had 
been traced, without exception, to Kaltofen. It was 
the latter who had concealed Kiigelgen's coat, and 
had given his watch to the Jews. It was he who had 
got Kiessling to dispose of Winter's hat for him, and 
had given the boots of the last victim to Kiessling 
to be repaired. 

On January 4th, 1821, the Court at Leipzig issued 
its judgment ; that Kaltofen, on account of two 
murders committed and confessed, was to be put to 



6o HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

death on the wheel ; " but that John George Fischer 
be discharged on account of lack of evidence of 
complicity in the murders." The gaoler was dis- 
charged his office. 

Kaltofen appealed against the sentence, but in vain. 
The sentence was confirmed. The ground of his 
appeal was, that he was not alone guilty. The King 
commuted the penalty of the wheel into execution by 
the sword. 

The sentence of the court produced the liveliest 
commotion in Dresden. The feeling against Fischer 
was strong and general; the gaoler had but represented 
the universal opinion. Fischer — who had confessed 
to the murder — Fischer, whom Kaltofen protested was 
as deeply stained in crime as himself, was to go scot 
free. The police authorities did not carry out the 
sentence of discharge in its integrity ; they indeed 
released him from prison, but placed him under police 
supervision, and he was discharged from the Artillery 
on the plea that he had forsworn himself. The pastor 
Jaspis was entrusted with the preparation of Kaltofen 
for death ; and we know pretty well what passed be- 
tween him and the condemned man, as he had the 
indecency to publish it to the world. Jaspis had, in- 
deed, visited him in prison when he was first arrested, 
and then Kaltofen had asserted that he had committed 
the murders entirely unassisted. On Jaspis remarking 
to him in April, 1820, that there were circumstances 
that rendered this eminently improbable, Kaltofen 
cut him short with the answer, " I was by myself." 
Afterwards, when he had changed his note, Jaspis 
reminded him of his previous declaration, but 



A NORTHERN RAPHAEL. 61 

Kaltofen pretended not to remember ever having 
made it. 

Towards the end of his days, Kaltofen was pro- 
foundly agitated, and was very restless. When Jaspis 
gave him a book of prayers and meditations for such 
as were in trouble, he put it from him, and said the 
book was unsuitable, and was adapted only to the 
innocent. He had visitors who combined piety with 
inquisitiveness, and came to discuss with him the state 
of his soul. Kaltofen's vanity was inflamed, and he 
was delighted to pose before these zealots. When he 
heard that Jaspis had preached about him in the 
Kreuz Kirche on the Sunday before his execution, he 
was greatly gratified, and said, " He would really 
like to hear what had been said about him." 

Jaspis thereupon produced his sermon, and read it 
over to the wretched man, — but tells us that even the 
most touching portions of the address failed to awake 
any genuine compunction in his soul. Unless he 
could play the saint, before company, he was cold 
and indifferent. His great vanity, however, was hurt 
at the thought that his assertion was disbelieved, that 
Fischer was his associate in his crimes. He was always 
eager and inquisitive to know what rumours circulated 
in the town concerning him, and was gratified to 
think that he was the topic of the general conver- 
sation. 

On the night before his execution he slept soundly 
for five hours, and then lit his pipe and smoked 
composedly. His condition was, however, not one of 
bluntness of sense, for he manifested considerable 
readiness and consciousness up to the last. He had 



62 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

drawn up a dying address which he handed to pastor 
Jaspis, and on which he evidently placed great im- 
portance, as when his first copy had caught fire when 
he was drying it, he set to work to compose a second. 
He knew his man — Jaspis — and was sure he would 
publish it after the execution. The paper was a 
rigmarole in which he posed to the world. 

On reaching the market-place where the execution 
was to take place, he repeated his confession, but on 
this occasion without mention of a confederate. His 
composure gave way, and he began to sob. On 
reaching the scaffold, however, the sight of the vast 
crowd assembled to see him die restored to him some 
of his composure, as it pleased his vanity ; but he 
again broke down, as he made his last confession to 
the Lutheran pastor. His voice trembled, and the 
sweat broke out on his brow. Then he sprang up 
and shouted, so that all could hear — " Gentlemen, 
Fischer deserved the same punishment as myself."' 
In another moment his head fell from his body. 

The words had been audible throughout the market- 
place by everyone. Who could doubt that his last 
words were true ? 

Fischer happened that very day (July I2th) to be 
in Dresden. He had been seen, and had been 
recognised. 

He had come to Dresden to see his counsel, and 
ask him to use his influence to obtain his complete 
discharge from police supervision, and restoration to 
his rights as an honest man and a soldier, with a 
claim to a pension. 

A vast crowd of people rolled from the place of 



A NORTHERN RAPHAEL. 63 

execution to the house of Eisensttick, shouting, and 
threatening to tear Fischer to pieces. 

But Eisenstiick was not the man to be terrified. 
He summoned a carriage, entered it along with Fischer^ 
and drove slowly, with the utmost composure, through 
the angry crowd. 

On August 26th, 1822, by command of the king,. 
Fischer's name was replaced in the army list, and he 
received his complete discharge from all the con- 
sequences of the accusations made against him. He 
was guaranteed his pension for his " faithful services 
through 16 years, and in the campaigns of 18 13, 18 14,. 
and 181 5, in which he had conducted himself to the 
approval of all his officers/' 

How are we to explain the conduct of Kaltofen ? 
The simplest way is to admit that he spoke the truth; 
but against this is to be opposed his denial that Fischer 
was guilty during the first six months that he was 
under arrest. And it is impossible to believe that 
Fischer was guilty, on the sole testimony of Kaltofen, 
without any confirmatory evidence. 

It is rather to be supposed that the inordinate vanity 
of the young culprit induced him to persist in de- 
nouncing his innocent brother gunner, so as to throw off 
his own shoulders some of the burden of that crime, 
which, he felt, made him hateful in the eyes of his 
fellow-citizens, and perhaps to induce them to regard 
him as misled by an older man, more hardened and 
experienced in crime, thus arousing their pity and 
sympathy in place of their disgust. 

Jaspis, the pastor, did not himself believe in the 
criminality of Fischer, and proposes a solution which 



64 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

he gives conjecturally only. He suggests that Kalto- 
fen was misled by the confession of Fischer into the 
belief that he really had committed a murder or two, 
though not those of Winter and Kiigelgen, and that 
when he declared on the scaffold that " Fischer de- 
served to die as much as himself," he spoke under this 
conviction. This explanation is untenable, for the 
miserable man had repeatedly charged Fischer with 
assisting him in committing these two particular 
crimes. The explanation must be found in his self- 
conceit and eagerness to present himself in the best 
and most affecting light before the public. And he 
gained his point to some extent. The mob believed 
him, pitied him, became sentimental over him, wept 
tears at his death, and cursed the unfortunate Fischer. 
The apparent piety, the mock heroics, the graceful 
attitudes, and the good looks of the murderer had won 
their sympathies, and the general opinion of the vul- 
gar was that they had assisted at the sublimation of 
a saint to the seventh heaven, and not at the well-de- 
served execution of a peculiarly heartless and brutal 
murderer. 

A month had hardly passed since Kaltofen's execu- 
cution before Dresden was shocked to hear of another 
murder — on this occasion by a young woman. On 
August 1 2th, 1 82 1, this person, who had been in a state 
of excitement ever since the edifying death of Kalto- 
fen, invited to her house a young girl, just engaged to 
be married, and deliberately murdered her ; then 
marched off to the police and confessed her crime — 
the nature of which she did not disguise. She desired 
to make the same affecting and edifying end as Kalto- 



A NORTHERN RAPHAEL. 65 

jen. Above all, she wanted to get herself talked about 
by all the mouths in Dresden. The police on visiting 
her house found the murdered girl lying on the bed. 
On the door in large letters the murderer had in- 
scribed the date of Kaltofen's martyrdom, July 12th, 
and she had committed her crime on the same day 
one month after, desirous to share his glory. 

Such was one consequence of this execution. A 
small farce also succeeded it. Influenced by the 
general excitement provoked by the murder of 
Kiigelgen, the Jews had assembled and agreed, should 
any of them be able to discover the murderer, that 
they would decline the £150 offered by Government 
for information that might lead to the apprehension 
of the guilty. But Hirschel Mendel, the Jew who 
had produced the watch, put in his claim ; whereupon 
Lobel Graff, who had produced the coat, put in a 
counter claim. This occasioned a lawsuit between 
the two Jews for the money. A compromise was 
finally patched up, by which each received half. 

Gerhard von Kiigelgen had been buried in the 
Catholic cemetery at Dresden on Maundy Thursday 
evening by moonlight. A great procession of art 
students attended the funeral cortege with lighted 
torches, and an oration was pronounced over his grave 
by his friend Councillor Bottiger. 

His tomb may still be seen in the cemetery; on it 
is inscribed : — 

Franz Gerhard von Kugelgen. 
Born, 6 Feb, 1772. 
Died 27 March, 1820. 

On the other side is the text, S. John, xiv 27. 

E 



66 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

Kiigelgen left behind him two sons and a daughter. 
The eldest son, Wilhelm, pursued his father's profes- 
sion as an artist, and the Emperor of Russia sent an 
annual grant of money to assist him in his studies. 
There is a pleasant book, published anonymously by 
him, " An Old Man's Youthful Reminiscences," the 
first edition of which was issued in 1870, and which 
had reached its eighth edition in 1876. 

Ktigelgen's twin brother Karl Ferdinand, after 
spending some years in St. Petersburg and in Livonia, 
settled at Reval, and died in 1832. He was the author 
of a " Picturesque Journey in the Crimea," published 
in 1823. 

Authority : — F. Ch. A. Hasse : Das Leben Gerhards von 
Kiigelgen. Leipzig, 1824. He gives in the Supplement an ex- 
cerpt from the records of the trial. As frontispiece is a portrait 
of the artist by himself, very Raphaelesque. 



At the time when the banished Bourbons were 
wandering about Europe seeking temporary asylums, 
during the period of Napoleon's supremacy, a story 
circulated in 1804 relative to an attempt made in 
Warsaw, which then belonged to Prussia, upon the life 
of the Royal Family then residing there. It was said 
that a plot had been formed, that was well nigh suc- 
cessful, to kill Louis XVIIL, his wife, the Duke and 
Duchess of Angouleme, and such of the Court as sat 
at the Royal table, with a dish of poisoned parsnips. 
It was, moreover, whispered that at the bottom of the 
plot was no other than Napoleon himself, who sought 
to remove out of his way the legitimate claimants to 
the Gallic throne. 

The article in which the account of the attempt was 
made public was in the London Courier for August 
20th, 1804, from which we will now take the leading 
facts. 

The Royal Family was living in Warsaw. Napoleon 
Bonaparte employed an agent of the name of Galon 
Boyer at Warsaw to keep an eye on them, and this 
man it was reported had engaged assassins at the 
instigation of Napoleon to poison Louis XVIIL and 
the rest of the Foyal Family. The Courier of August 
2 1st, 1804, says: "Some of the daily papers, which 
were not over anxious to discredit the conspiracy trn- 

67 



68 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

puted to Mr. Drake x affect to throw some doubt upon 
the account of the attempt upon the lives of the 
Royal Family at Warsaw. They seem to think 
that had Bonaparte desired such a plan, he could 
have executed it with more secrecy and effect. Un- 
doubtedly his plans of assassination have hitherto 
been more successful, because his hapless victims 
were within his power — his wounded soldiers at 
Jaffa, Toussaint L'Ouverture, Pichegru, and the Duke 
D'Enghien. He could send his bloodhounds into 
Germany to seize his prey; but Warsaw was too 
remote for him ; he was under the necessity of having 
recourse to less open means of sending his assassins to 
act secretly. But it is deemed extraordinary that 
the diabolical attempt should have failed. Why is it 
extraordinary that a beneficent Providence should in- 
terpose to save the life of a just prince? Have we 
not had signal instances of that interposition in this 
country ? For the accuracy of the account we 
published yesterday, we pledge ourselves 2 that the 
fullest details authenticated by all Louis the XVIII.'s 

1 Drake was envoy of the British Government at Munich; he 
and Spencer Smith, Charge d'Affaires at Wiirtemberg, were 
accused by Napoleon of being at the bottom of a counter revolu- 
tion, and an attempt to obtain his assassination. It was true 
that Drake and Smith were in correspondence with parties in 
France with the object of securing Hagenau and Strassburg 
and throwing discord among the troops of the Republic, but 
they never for a moment thought of obtaining the assassination 
of the First Consul, as far as we can judge from their correspon- 
dence that fell into the hands of the French police. 

2 Unfortunately the British Museum file is imperfect, and does 
not contain the Number for August 20th. 



THE POISONED PARSNIPS. 69 

Ministers — by the venerable Archbishop of Rheims — 
by the Abbe Edgeworth, who administered the last 
consolation of religion to Louis the XVI., have been 
received in this country. All those persons were 
present when the poisoned preparation was analysed 
by very eminent physicians, zvJio are the subjects of the \. 
King of Prussia. 

" The two wretches who attempted to corrupt the 
poor Frenchman were openly protected by the French 
Consul or Commercial Agent. 

" The Prussian Governor would not suffer them to 
be arrested in order that their guilt or innocence might 
be legally investigated. Is it to be believed that 
had there been no foundation for the charge against 
them, the French agent would have afforded them 
less open protection, and thereby strengthened the 
charge brought against them ? If they were pro- 
tected and paid by the French agent, is it probable 
that he paid them out of his own pocket, employed 
them in such a plot of his own accord, and without 
order and instructions from his own Government, from 
Bonaparte? Besides, did not the President Hoym 
acknowledge his fears that some attempt would be 
made upon the life of Louis the XVIII. ? 

"The accounts transmitted to this country were 
sent from Warsaw one hour after the king had set 
out for Grodno." 

The Courier for August 24th, 1804, has the fol- 
lowing note : — " We have another strong fact which 
is no slight evidence in our minds of Bonaparte's guilt. 
The plot against Louis the XVIII. was to be executed 
at the end of July — it would be known about the be- 



70 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

ginning of August. At that very period Bonaparte 
prohibits the importation of all foreign journals without 
exception — that is, of all the means by which the 
people could be informed of the diabolical deed. Why 
does he issue this prohibition at the present moment, 
or why does he issue it at all ? Fouche says in his 
justification of it that it is to prevent our knowing 
when the expedition sails. Have we ever received 
any news about the expedition from the French 
papers ? No, no ! the prohibition was with a view to 
the bloody scene to be acted at Warsaw." 

The Courier of August 22nd contained full parti- 
culars. We will now tell the whole story, from begin- 
ning to end, first of all as dressed out by the fancy of 
Legitimists, and then according to the real facts of the 
case as far as known. 

Napoleon, it will be remembered, had been appointed 
First Consul for life on August 2nd, 1802, but the Re- 
public came to an end, and the French Empire was 
established by the Senate on May 18th, 1804. 

It was supposed — and we can excuse the excite- 
ment and intoxication of wrath in the minds of all 
adherents of the Bourbons which could suppose it — 
that Napoleon, who was thus refounding the Empire 
of Charlemagne, desired to secure the stability of this 
new throne by sweeping out of his way the legitimate 
claimants to that of France. The whole legend of 
the attempt to assassinate Louis XVIII. by means of 
a dish of poisoned parsnips is given us in complete 
form by the author of a life of that prince, twenty 
years after the event. 1 It is to this effect : 

1 A. de Beauchamp, Vie de Louis XVIIT. Paris, 1824. 



THE POISONED PARSNIPS. 7 1 

When the King (Louis XVIII.) was preparing for 
his journey from Warsaw to Grodno an atrocious 
attempt to assassinate him was brought to light, which 
leaves no manner of doubt that it was the purpose of 
those who were the secret movers in the plot to remove 
by poison both the King and Queen and also the 
Duke of Angouleme and his wife. Two delegates of 
Napoleon had been in Warsaw seeking for a man who 
could execute the plan. A certain Coulon appeared 
most adapted to their purpose, a man indigent and 
eager for money. He had previously been in the ser- 
vice of one of the emigre nobles, and had access to 
the kitchen of the Royal Family. 

The agents of Napoleon gave Coulon drink, and as 
he became friendly and lively under the influence of 
punch, they communicated to him their scheme, and 
promised him money, the payment of his debts, and to 
effect his escape if he would be their faithful servant 
in the intrigue. Coulon pretended to yield to their 
solicitations, and a rendezvous was appointed where 
the plans were to be matured. But no sooner was 
Coulon at liberty than he went to his former master, 
the Baron de Milleville, master of horse to the Queen, 
and told him all. The Baron sought the Due de 
Pienne, first gentleman of the Royal household, and 
he on receiving the information communicated it to 
the Count d'Avaray, Minister of Louis XVIII. Coulon 
received orders to pretend to be ready to carry on the 
plot. He did this with reluctance, but he did it. He 
told the agents of Napoleon that he was in their 
hands and would blindly execute their orders. They 
treated him now to champagne, and revealed to him 



72 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

the details of the attempt. He was to get into the 
kitchen of the Royal household, and was to pour the 
contents of a packet they gave him, into one of the 
pots in which the dinner for the Royal table was being 
•cooked, Coulon then demanded an instalment of his 
pay, and asked to be given 400 louisd'or. One of the 
agents then turned to the other and asked if he thought 
Boyer would be disposed to advance so much— this 
was Galon Boyer, the head agent sent purposely to 
Warsaw as spy on the Royal Family, and the princi- 
pal mover in the attempt. 

The other agent replied that Boyer was not at the 
moment in Warsaw, but he would be back in a couple 
of days. Coulon stuck to his point, like a clever ras- 
cal, and refused to do anything till he felt gold in his 
palm, and he was bidden wait till Boyer had been 
communicated with. He was appointed another 
meeting on the moors at Novawies outside the city. 

As, next evening, Coulon was on his way to the place 
named, he observed that he was followed by a man. 
Suddenly out of the corn growing beside the road 
started a second. They were the agents. They 
paid him a few dollars, promised to provide hand- 
somely for him in France, by giving him 400 louisd'or 
and a situation under Government ; and handed him 
a bottle of liquor that was to stimulate his courage at 
the crucial moment, and also a paper packet that con- 
tained three parsnips, that had been scooped out and 
filled with poison. These he was to insinuate into one 
of the pots cooking for dinner, and induce the cook to 
overlook what he had done, and serve them up to the 
Royal Family. 



THE POISONED PARSNIPS. 73 

The King then lived in a chateau at Lazienki, about 
a mile out of Warsaw. Thither hastened Coulon as 
fast as his legs could carry him, and he committed the 
parsnips to theBarondeMilleville. TheCount d'Avaray 
and the Archbishop of Rheims put their seals on the 
parcel ; after that the parsnips had first been shown to 
the Prussian authorities, and they had been asked in 
all form to attest the production of the poisoned roots, 
and to order the arrest of the two agents of Napoleon, 
and to confront them with Coulon, — and had declined. 
Louis, when informed of the attempt, showed his 
wonted composure. He wrote immediately to the 
Prussian President, Von Hoym, and requested him to 
visit him at Lazienki, and consult what was to be 
done. 

Herr Von Hoym did not answer ; nor did he go to 
the King, but communicated with his superiors. Fin- 
ally there arrived a diplomatic reply declining to in- 
terfere in the matter, as it was the concern of the 
police to investigate it, and it should be taken up in 
the ordinary way. 

Thereupon the King requested that Coulon and his 
wife should be secured, and that specialists should be 
appointed who, along with the Royal physician, might 
examine the parsnips alleged to be poisoned. 

But the Prussian courts declined again to take any 
steps. The policy of the Prussian Cabinet under 
Count Haugwitz was favourable to a French alliance, 
and the King of Prussia was among the first of the 
greater Powers which had formally recognised the 
French Emperor. On condition that the French 
troops occupying Hanover should not be augme nted 



74 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

and that war, if it broke out with Russia, should be so 
carried on as not to inconvenience and sweep over 
Prussian territory, Prussia had undertaken to observe 
a strict neutrality. In return for these concessions,, 
which were of great moment to Napoleon, he openly 
proclaimed his intention to augment the strength of 
Prussia, and it was hoped at Berlin that the price paid 
would be the incorporation of Hanover with Prussia. 

At this moment, consequently, the Prussian Govern- 
ment was most unwilling to meddle in an investiga- 
tion which threatened to lead to revelations most 
compromising to the character of Napoleon, and most 
inconvenient for itself. 

As the Prussian courts would not take up the matter 
of the parsnips, a private investigation was made by 
the Count d'Avaray, with the Royal physician, Dr. 
Lefevre, and the Warsaw physican, Dr. Gagatkiewicz,. 
together with the Apothecary Guidel and a certain 
Dr. Bergonzoni. The seals were broken in their 
presence, and the three roots were examined. It was 
ascertained that they were stuffed with a mixture of 
white, yellow, and red arsensic. This having been 
ascertained, and a statement of the fact duly drawn 
up and signed, the president of the police, Herr von 
Tilly, was communicated with. He, however, de- 
clined to interfere, as had the President von Hoym. 
"Thus," says M. Beauchamp, "one court shuffled the 
matter off on another, backwards and forwards, so as 
not to have to decide on the matter — a specimen of 
the results of the system adopted at this time by the 
Prussian Cabinet." 

No other means of investigation remained but for 



THE POISONED PARSNIPS. 7$ 

Count d'Avaray to have the matter gone into by the 
court of the exiled King. They examined Coulon, 
who held firmly to his story as told to the Baron de 
Milleville, and all present were convinced that he 
spoke the truth. 

As the King could obtain no justice from the hands 
of Prussia, he suffered the story to be made public in 
order that the opinion of all honourable men in 
Europe might be expressed on the conduct of both 
Napoleon and of the Prussian Ministry. " The im- 
pression made," says M. Beauchamp, " especially in 
England, was deep. Men recalled Bonaparte's former 
crimes that had been proved, — the poisoning at Jaffa, 
the — at the time — very fresh indignation provoked by 
the murder of the Count de Frotte, of Pichegru, of 
Captain Wright, of the Duke d'Enghien, of Toussaint 
l'Ouverture ; they recalled the lack of success he had 
experienced in demanding of Louis XVIII. a formal 
renunciation of his claims, and weighed well the de- 
termination of his character. Even the refusal of the 
Prussian courts to go into the charge (for if it had 
been investigated they must needs have pronounced 
judgment on it) — encouraged suspicion. Hardly an 
English newspaper did not condemn Napoleon as the 
instigator of an attempt that providentially failed." 

Such is the legend as formulated by M. de Beau- 
champ. Fortunately there exists documentary evi- 
dence in the archives of the courts at Berlin that gives 
an altogether different complexion to the story, and 
entirely clears the name of Napoleon from stain of 
complicity in this matter. It throws, moreover, a 
light, by no means favourable, on those of the 



76 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

Legitimist party clustered about the fallen mon- 
arch. 

Louis XVIII., obliged to fly from one land to 
another before the forces of Napoleon, was staying 
for awhile at Warsaw, in the year 1S04, under the 
incognito of the Count de 1'Isle. His misfortunes 
had not broken his spirit or diminished his preten- 
sions. He was surrounded by a little court in spite 
of his incognito ; and as this little court had no 
affairs of State to transact, it played a niggling game 
at petty intrigue. This court consisted of the Count 
d'Avaray, the Archbishop of Rheims, the Duke de 
Pienne, the Marquis de Bonney, the Duke d'Avre de 
Croy, the Count de la Chapelle, the Counts Damas 
Crux and Stephen de Damas, and the Abbes Edge- 
worth and Frimont. Louis had assured Napoleon he 
would rather eat black bread than resign his preten- 
sions. At Warsaw he maintained his pretensions to 
the full, but did not eat black bread ; he kept a very 
respectable kitchen. The close alliance between 
Prussia and France forced him to leave Warsaw and 
migrate into Russia. 

At this time there lived in Warsaw a certain Jean 
Coulon, son of a small shopkeeper at Lyons, who had 
led an adventurous life. At the age of nine he had 
run away from home and attached himself to a 
wandering dramatic company ; then had gone into 
service to a wigmaker, and had lived for three years 
at Barcelona at his handicraft. But wigs were going 
out of fashion, and he threw up an unprofitable trade, 
and enlisted in a legion of emigres, but in conse- 
quence of some quarrel with a Spaniard was handed 



THE POISONED PARSNIPS. -j-j 

over to the Spanish authorities. He purchased his 
pardon by enlisting in the Spanish army, but deserted 
and joined the French Republican troops, was in the 
battle of Novi, ran away, and joined the corps raised 
at Naples by Cardinal Ruffo. When this corps was 
dispersed, he went back to Spain, again enlisted,, 
and was shipped for St. Lucia. The vessel in which 
he was, was captured by an English cruiser, and he 
was taken into Plymouth and sent up to Dartmoor 
as prisoner of war. After two years he was exchanged, 
and was shipped to Cuxhaven. Thence he went to 
Altona, where he asked the intervention of the Duke 
d'Avre" in his favour. The Duke recommended him 
to the Countess de ITsle, and he was taken into the 
service of her master of horse, the Baron de Milleville, 
and came to Warsaw in September, 1803. There he 
married, left his service and set up a cafe and billiard 
room that was frequented by the retainers and ser- 
vants of the emigre nobility that hovered about the 
King and Queen. He was then aged 32, could speak 
Italian and Spanish as well as French, and was a 
thorough soldier of fortune, impecunious, loving plea- 
sure, and wholly without principles, political or re- 
ligious. 

The French Charge d' Affaires at Warsaw was 
Galon Boyer ; he does not appear in the documents 
relative to the Affaire Coulon, not because the Prussian 
Government shirked its duty, but because he was in 
no way mixed up with the matter of the parsnips. It 
is quite true that, as M. de Beauchamp asserts, the 
Court of Louis XVIII. did endeavour to involve the 
Prussian authorities in the investigation, but it was in 



y8 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

such a manner that it was not possible for them to act. 
On July 23rd, when the Count de l'lsle was deter- 
mined to leave Warsaw, Count d'Avaray called on the 
President von Hoym, and told him in mysterious 
language that he was aware of a conspiracy in whicli 
were involved several Frenchmen and as many as a 
dozen Poles that sought the life of his august master. 
Herr von Hoym doubted. He asked for the grounds 
of this assertion, and was promised full particulars 
that same evening at eight o'clock. At the hour 
appointed, the Count appeared breathless before him, 
and declared that now he was prepared with a com- 
plete disclosure. However, he told nothing, and post- 
poned the revelation to 10 o'clock. Then Avaray 
informed him that the keeper of the Cafe Coulon had 
been hired by some strangers to meet him that same 
night on the road to Novawies, to plan with him the 
murder, by poison, of the Count de l'lsle. The whole 
story seemed suspicious to von Hoym. It was now 
too late for him to send police to watch the spot 
where the meeting was to take place, which he might 
have done had d'Avaray condescended to tell him in 
time, two hours earlier. He asked d'Avaray where 
Coulon lived, that he might send for him, and the 
Count professed he did not know the address. 

Next day Count d'Avaray read to the President von 
Hoym a document, which he said had been drawn 
up by members of the court of the Count de l'lsle, 
showed him a paper that contained twelve small par- 
snips, and requested him to subscribe the document 
and seal the parcel of parsnips. Naturally, the Pre- 
sident declined to do this. He had not seen Coulon 



THE POISONED PARSNIPS. 79 

he did not know from whom Coulon had received the 
parcel, and he mistrusted the whole story. However, 
he requested that he might be furnished with an 
■exact description of the two mysterious strangers, 
and when he had received it, communicated with the 
police, and had inquiry made for them in and about 
Warsaw. No one had seen or heard of any persons 
answering to the description. 

Presently the Marquis de Bonney arrived to request 
the President, in the name of the Count de l'lsle, to 
have the parsnips examined by specialists. He de- 
clined to do so. 

On July 26th, the Count d'Avaray appeared before 
the head of the Police, the President von Tilly, and 
showed him an attestation made by several doctors 
that they had examined three parsnips that had been 
shown them, and they had found in them a paste 
composed of arsenic and orpiment. Von Tilly 
thought the whole story so questionable that he re- 
fused to meddle with it. Moreover, a notary of 
Warsaw, who had been requested to take down 
Coulon's statement, had declined to testify to the 
genuineness of the confession, probably because, as 
Coulon afterwards insinuated, he had been helped to 
make it consistent by those who questioned him. 

Louis XVIII. left Warsaw on July 30, and as the 
rumour spread that Coulon's wife had bought some 
arsenic a week before at an apothecary's shop in the 
place, the police inspector ordered her arrest. She 
was questioned and declared that she had, indeed, 
bought some rat poison, without the knowledge of 
her husband. Coulon was now taken up and ques- 



8o HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

tioned, and he pretended that he had given his wife 
orders to buy the rat poison, because he was plagued 
with vermin in the house. 

Then the authorities in Warsaw sent all the docu- 
ments relating to this matter, including the prods 
verbal drawn up by the courtiers of Louis XVIII., to 
Berlin, and asked for further instructions. 

According to this prods verbal Coulon had con- 
fessed as follows : On the 20th July two strangers 
had entered his billiard room, and had assured him 
that, if he were disposed to make his fortune, they 
could help him to it. They made him promise 
silence, and threatened him with death if he disclosed 
what they said. After he had sworn fidelity and 
secrecy, they told him that he was required to throw 
something into the pot in which the soup was being 
prepared for the King's table. For so doing they 
would pay him 400 louis d'or. Coulon considered a 
moment ; then the strangers promised they would 
provide a situation for his wife in France. After that 
one of them said to his fellow in Italian, "We must 
be off. We have no time to lose." Next day, in the 
evening, a third stranger appeared at his door, called 
him forth into the street, walked about with him 
through the streets of old and new Warsaw, till he 
was thoroughly bewildered, and did not know where 
he was, and, finally, entered with him a house, where 
he saw the two strangers who had been with him 
previously. Champagne was brought on table, and 
they all drank, and one of the strangers became 
tipsy. When Coulon promised to do what was re- 
quired of him, he was told to secure some of the 



THE POISONED PARSNIPS. 81 

mutton-chops that were being prepared for the Royal 

table, and to manipulate them with the powder that 

was to be given him. That the cook might not 

notice what he was about, he was to treat him to 

large draughts of brandy. Coulon agreed, but asked 

first to touch the 400 louis d'or. Then the tipsy 

man shouted out, " That is all right, but will Boyer 

consent to it ? " The other stranger tried to check 

him, and said, " What are you saying ? Boyer is not 

here, he has gone out of town and will not be back 

for a couple of days." After Coulon had insisted on 

prepayment, he had been put off till the next evening, 

when he was to meet the strangers at 1 1 o'clock on 

the road to Novawies. There he was to receive 

money, and the powder for the King. He was then 

given one ducat, and led home at one o'clock in the 

morning. On the following night, at 1 1 o'clock, he 

went on the way to Novawies, and then followed what 

we have already given from the story of the man, as 

recorded by M. de Beauchamp. He received from 

the men a packet containing the parsnips, and some 

money — only six dollars. They put a kerchief under 

the earth beneath a tree, and bade him, if he had 

accomplished his task, come to the tree and remove 

the kerchief, as a token to them ; if, however, he 

failed, the kerchief was to be left undisturbed. The 

tree he had marked well, it was the forty-fifth along 

the road to Novawies. A small end of the kerchief 

peeped out from under the soil. The strangers had 

then given him a bottle of liqueur to stimulate his 

courage for the undertaking. 

After that Coulon was left alone, he said that he 

F 



82 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

staggered homewards, but felt so faint that he would 
have fallen to the ground had not a Prussian officer, 
who came by, noticed his condition and helped him 
home. At the conclusion of the proces verbal came 
an exact description of the conspirators. Such was 
the document produced originally by the Count 
d'Avaray, and we can hardly wonder that, on hearing 
it, the Prussian civil and police authorities had 
hesitated about taking action. The so-called con- 
fession of Coulon seemed to them to be a rhodomon- 
tade got up for the purpose of obtaining money out 
of the ex-King and his Court. 

From Berlin orders were sent to Warsaw to have the 
matter thoroughly sifted. Coulon and his wife were 
now again subjected to examination. He adhered at 
first to his story, but when he endeavoured to explain 
the purchase of the arsenic, and to fit it into his. 
previous tale, he involved himself in contradictions. 

The President at this point addressed him gravely,, 
and warned him of the consequences. His story 
compromised the French charge d'affaires, M. Galon 
Boyer, and this could not be allowed to be passed over 
without a very searching examination, that must in- 
evitably reveal the truth. Coulon was staggered, 
and hastily asked how matters would stand with 
him if he told the truth. Then, after a little hesita- 
tion, he admitted that "he thought before the departure 
of the Count de ITsle he would obtain for himself 
a sum of money, with which to escape out of his 
difficulties. He had reckoned on making ioo ducats 
out of this affair." He now told quite a different tale. 
With the departure of the court of the emigre's, he 



THE POISONED PARSNIPS. 83 

would lose his clientelle, and he was concerned 
because he owed money for the cafe and billiard 
table. He had therefore invented the whole story in 
hopes of imposing on the court and getting from them 
a little subvention. But, he said he had been dragged 
on further than he intended by the Count d'Avaray, 
who had swallowed his lie with avidity, and had 
urged him to go on with the intrigue so as to produce 
evidence against the conspirators. 

That was why he had made up the figment of the 
meeting with the strangers on the road and their 
gift to him of the parsnips, which he admitted that he 
had himself scooped out and filled with the rat poison 
paste he had bought at the apothecary's. 

So far so good. What he now said was precisely 
what the cool heads of the Prussian authorities had 
believed from the first. But Coulon did not adhere 
to this second confession. After a few days in prison 
he professed his desire to make another. He was 
brought before the magistrate, and now he said that 
the whole story was got up by the Count d'Avaray, 
M. de Milleville, and others of the surroundings of 
the exiled King, for the purpose of creating an out- 
break of disgust in Europe against Napoleon, and of 
bringing about a revolt in France. He declared that 
he had been promised a pension of six ducats 
monthly, that when he gave his evidence M. de Mille- 
ville had paid him 35 ducats, and that he had been 
taken into the service, along with his wife, of the 
ex-Queen, as reward for what he had done. 

There were several particulars which gave colour to 
this last version of Coulon's story. It was true that 



84 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

he had been given some money by Milleville, it was 
perhaps true that in their eagerness to prove a case of 
. attempted assassination, some of those who conducted 
the inquiry had helped him to correct certain discrep- 
ancies in his narrative. Then, again, it was remark- 
able that, although the Count d'Avaray knew about 
the projected murder, he would not tell the Prussian 
President the facts till io o'clock at night, when it was 
too late to send the police to observe the pretended 
meeting on the Novawies road, and when Herr von 
Hoym asked for directions as to where Coulon lived 
that the police might be sent to arrest him on his 
return, and during his absence to search the house, the 
Count had pretended to be unable to say where 
Coulon lived. It was also true that de Milleville had 
repeatedly visited Coulon's house during the course 
of the intrigue, and that it was immediately after 
Coulon had been at Milleville's house that his wife 
was sent to buy the rat poison. 

Coulon pretended to have heard M. de Milleville 
say that " This affair might cause a complete change 
in the situation in France, when tidings of what had 
been done were published." Moreover, he said that he 
had been despatched to the Archbishop of Rheim's 
with the message " Le coup est manque." 

But it is impossible to believe that the emigre" court 
can have fabricated such a plot by which to cast on 
the name of Napoleon the stain of attempted assassina- 
tion. The whole story reads like the clumsy invention 
of a vulgar adventurer. Coulon's second confession is 
obviously that of his true motives. He was in debt, 
he was losing his clientelle by the departure of the 



THE POISONED PARSNIPS. 85 

Count, and it is precisely what such a scoundrel would 
do, to invent a lie whereby to enlist their sympathies 
for himself, and obtain from them some pecuniary 
acknowledgment for services he pretended to have 
rendered. The little court was to blame in its 
gullibility. Its blind hatred of Napoleon led it to 
believe such a gross and palpable lie, and, if doubts 
arose in any of their minds as to the verity of the tale 
told them, they suppressed them. 

Coulon was found guilty by the court and was 
sentenced to five years' imprisonment. The judgment 
of the court was that he had acted in concert with 
certain members of the retinue of the Count de ITsle, 
but it refrained from naming them. 



Zbc flDurfcer of fatber Gbomas in 
Damascus* 

The remarkable case we are about to relate awoke 
great interest and excitement throughout three 
quarters of the world, and stirred up that hatred of 
the Jews which had been laid asleep after the perse- 
cutions of the Middle Ages, just at the time when in 
all European lands the emancipation of the Jew was 
being recognised as an act of justice. At the time the 
circumstances were imperfectly known, or were laid 
before the public in such a partial light that it was 
difficult to form a correct judgment upon them. 
Since then, a good deal of light has been thrown on 
the incident, and it is possible to arrive at a con- 
clusion concerning the murder with more unbiased 
mind and with fuller information than was possible 
at the time. 

The Latin convents of Syria stand under the im- 
mediate jurisdiction of the Pope, and are, for the most 
part, supplied with recruits from Italy. They are 
very serviceable to travellers, whom they receive with 
genial hospitality, and without distinction of creed. 
They are nurseries of culture and of industry. Every 
monk and friar is required to exercise a profession or 
trade, and the old charge against monks of being 
drones is in no w T ay applicable to the busy members 
of the religious orders in Palestine. 

86 



THE MURDER OF FA THER THOMAS. 87 

In the Capuchin Convent at Damascus dwelt, in 
1840, a friar named Father Thomas, a Sardinian by 
birth. For thirty-three years he had lived there, and 
had acted as physician and surgeon, attending to 
whoever called for his services, Mussulman or Chris- 
tian, Turk, Jew or Frank alike. He set limbs, dosed 
with quinine for fever, and vaccinated against small- 
pox. Being well known and trusted, he was in 
constant practice, and his practice brought him, or, at 
all events, his order, a handsome annual income. His 
manners were, unfortunately, not amiable. He was 
curt, even rude, and somewhat dictatorial; his manners 
impressed as authoritative in the sickroom, but were 
resented in the market-place as insolent. 

On February 5th, 1840, Father Thomas disap- 
peared, together with his servant, a lay brother who 
always attended him. This disappearance caused 
great commotion in Damascus. 

France has been considered in the East as the 
protector of Christians of the Latin confession. The 
French Consul, the Count Ratti-Menton, considered it 
his duty to investigate the matter. 

Father Thomas had been seen to enter the Jews' 
quarter. Several Israelites admitted having seen him 
there. No one saw him leave it : consequently, it 
was concluded he had disappeared, been made away 
with, there. As none but Jews occupied the Ghetto, 
it was argued that Father Thomas had been murdered 
by Israelites. That was settled as a preliminary. 
But in the meantime the Austrian Consul had been 
making investigation as well as the Count Ratti- 
Menton, and he had obtained information that Father 



88 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

Thomas and his servant had been noticed engaged in 
a violent quarrel and contest of words with some 
Mohammedans of the lowest class, in the market- 
place. No weight was attached to this, and the French 
Consul pursued his investigations in the Jews' quarter, 
and in that quarter alone. 

Sheriff Pacha was Governor of Syria, and Count 
Ratti-Menton required him to allow of his using 
every means at his disposal for the discovery of the 
criminal. He also requested the Austrian Consul to 
allow a domiciliary visitation of all the Jews' houses, 
the Austrian Government being regarded as the pro- 
tector of the Hebrews. In both cases consent was 
given, and the search was begun with zeal. 

Then a Turk, named Mohammed-el-Telli, who was 
in prison for non-payment of taxes, sent word to the 
French Consul that, if he would obtain his release, he 
would give such information as would lead to the 
discovery of the murderer or murderers. He received 
his freedom, and denounced, in return, several Jews' 
houses as suspicious. Count Ratti-Menton at the 
head of a troop of soldiers and workmen, and a rabble 
assembled in the street, invaded all these houses, and 
explored them from attic to cellar. 

One of the first names given by Mohammed-el-Telli 
was that of a Jewish barber, Negrin. He gave a con- 
fused and contradictory account of himself, but abso- 
lutely denied having any knowledge of the murder. In 
vain were every means used during three days at the 
French Consulate to bring him to a confession ; after 
that he was handed over to the Turkish authorities. 
They had him bastinadoed, then tortured. During his 



THE MURDER OF FA THER THOMAS. 89 

torture, Mohammed-el-Telli was at his side urging 
him to make a clean breast. Unable to endure his 
sufferings longer, the barber declared his readiness 
to tell all. Whether what he said was based on 
reports circulating in the town, or was put into his 
mouth by his tormentors, we cannot tell. According to 
his story, on the evening of February the 5th a servant 
of David Arari summoned him into his house. He 
found the master of the house along with six other 
Israelitish rabbis and merchants, to wit, Aaron and 
Isaac Arari, Mussa Abul Afia, Moses Salonichi, and 
Joseph Laniado. In a corner of the room lay or 
leaned against the wall the Father Thomas, gagged 
and bound hand and foot. The merchants urged 
Negrin to murder the Capuchin in their presence, but 
he stedfastly refused to do so. Finally, finding him 
inflexible, they bought his silence with 600 piastres, 
(hardly £6) and dismissed him. 

Thereupon, the governor ordered the arrest of 
David Arari and the other Jews named, all of whom 
were the richest merchants in the town — at all events 
the richest Jewish merchants. They, with one con- 
sent, solemnly protested their innocence. They, also, 
were subjected to the bastinado ; but as most of them 
were aged men, and it was feared that they might 
succumb under the blows, after a few lashes had been 
administered, they were raised from the ground and 
subjected to other tortures. For thirty-six hours the 
unhappy men were forced to stand upright, and were 
prevented from sleeping. They still persisted in 
denial, whereupon some of them were again beaten. 
At the twentieth blow they fainted. The French 



go HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

Consul complained that the beating was inefficient — ■ 
so the Austrian Consul reported, and at his instiga- 
tion they were again bastinadoed, but again without 
bringing them to confession. 

In the meantime, David Arari's servant, Murad-el- 
Fallat, was arrested, the man who was said to have 
been sent for the barber. He was dealt with more 
sharply than the others. He was beaten most cruelly, 
and to heighten his pain cold water was poured over 
his bruised and mangled flesh. Under the anguish 
he confessed that he had indeed been sent for the 
barber. 

That was an insufficient confession. He was 
threatened with the bastinado again, and promised 
his release if he would reveal all he knew. There- 
upon he repeated the story of the barber, with addi- 
tions of his own. He and Negrin, said he, had by 
command of the seven rich merchants put the Father 
to death, and had then cut up the body and hidden 
the remains in a remote water conduit. 

The barber, threatened with fresh tortures, confessed 
to the murder. 

Count Ratti-Menton explored the conduit where 
the two men pretended the mutilated body was con- 
cealed, in the presence of the servant and barber, both 
of whom were in such a condition through the bar- 
barous treatment to which they had been subjected, 
that they could not walk, and had to be carried to the 
spot. And actually there some bones were found, 
together with a cap. A surgeon pronounced that 
these were human bones. It was at once concluded 
that these were the remains of Father Thomas, and 



THE MURDER OF FATHER THOMAS. 91 

as such were solemnly buried in the cemetery of the 
Capuchin Convent. 

David Arari's servant, Murad-el-Fallat, had related 
that the blood of Father Thomas had been collected 
in a copper vessel and drawn off and distributed 
among the Jews for religious purposes. It was an 
old and favourite belief among the ignorant that the 
Jews drank the blood' of Christians at Easter, or 
mingled it with the Paschal unleavened dough. At 
the same time the rumour spread that the rich 
Hebrew Picciotto, a young man, nephew of the 
Austrian Consul at Aleppo, had sent his uncle a 
bottle of blood. 

The seven merchants were led before the bones 
that had been discovered. They persisted in the 
declaration of their innocence. From this time for- 
ward, all scruple as to their treatment vanished, and 
they were tortured with diabolical barbarity. They 
received the bastinado again, they were burned where 
their flesh was tenderest with red hot pincers. Red 
hot wires were passed through their flesh. A German 
traveller, present at the time, declares that the first 
to acknowledge the truth of the charge was brought 
to do so by immersing him after all these torments 
for several hours in ice cold water ; after which the 
other six were lashed with a scourge made of hippo- 
potamus hide, till half unconscious, and streaming 
with blood, they w r ere ready to admit whatever their 
tormentors strove to worry out of them. 

The Protestant missionary, Wildon Pieritz, in his 
account enumerates the sufferings to which these un- 
happy men were subjected. 



92 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

They were, ist, bastinadoed. 
2nd. Plunged in large vessels of cold water. 
3rd. Placed under pressure till their eyes started out 

of their sockets. 
4th. Their flesh, where most sensitive, was twisted and 

nipped till they went almost mad with agony. 
5th. They were forced to stand upright for three 

whole days, and not suffered even to lean against 

a wall. Those who fell with exhaustion were 

goaded to rise again by the bayonets of the 

guard. 
6th. They were dragged about by their ears, so that 

they were torn and bled. 
7th. Thorns were driven up the quick of their nails 

on fingers and toes. 
8th. Their beards were singed off, so that the skin 

was scorched and blistered. 
9th. Flames were put under their noses so as to burn 

their nostrils. 
The French Consul — let his name go down to 
posterity steeped in ignominy- Count Ratti-Menton, 
was not yet satisfied. He was bent on finding the 
vials filled with the blood. Each of the seven 
questioned said he had not got one, but had given his 
vial to another. The last, Mussa Abul Afta, unable 
to endure his torments any longer, gave way, and 
professed his willingness to turn Mussulman. Never- 
theless, he was again subjected to the scourge, and 
whipped till he named another confederate, — the 
Chief Rabbi Jacob Antibi, as the man to whom the 
blood had been committed. Mussa's confession, com- 
mitted to writing, was as follows : — " I am commanded 



THE MURDER OF FA THER THOMAS. 93 

to say what I know relative to the murder of Father 
Thomas, and why I have submitted to become a 
Mussulman. It is, therefore, my duty to declare the 
truth. Jacob Antibi, Chief Rabbi, about a fortnight 
before the event, said to me — 'You know that accord- 
ing to our religion we must have blood. I have already 
arranged with David Arari, to obtain it in the house 
of one of our people, and you must be present and bring 
me the blood.' I replied that I had not the nerve to 
see blood flow ; whereupon, the Chief Rabbi answered 
that I could stand in the ante-chamber, and I would 
find Moses Salonichi and Joseph Laniado there. I 
then consented. On the 10th of the month, Achach, 
about an hour and a half before sun-down, as I was on 
my way to the synagogue, I met David Arari, who 
said to me : ' Come along to my house, you are wanted 
there.' I replied that I would come as soon as I 
had ended my prayers. 'No, no — come immediately!' 
he said. I obeyed. Then he told me that Father 
Thomas was in his house, and that he was to be sacri- 
ficed that evening. We went to his house. There 
we entered a newly-furnished apartment. Father 
Thomas lay bound in the midst of all there assembled. 
After sunset we adjourned to an unfurnished chamber, 
where David cut the throat of the monk. Aaron and 
Isaac Arari finished him. The blood was caught in a 
vat and then poured into a bottle, which was to be 
taken to the Chief Rabbi Jacob. I took the bottle 
and went to him. I found him in his court .waiting 
for me. When he saw me enter, he retreated to his 
cabinet, and I follow him thither, saying, ' Here, I 
bring you what you desired.' He took the bottle and 



94 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

put it behind a book-case. Then I went home. I 
have forgotten to say that, when I left Arari's house, 
the body was undisturbed. I heard David and his 
brother say that they had made a bad choice of a 
victim, as Father Thomas was a priest, and a well- 
known individual, and would therefore be sought for, 
high and low. They answered that there was no fear, 
no one would betray what had taken place. The 
clothing would be now burnt, the body cut to pieces, 
and conveyed by the servants to the conduit, and 
what remained would be concealed under some secret 
stairs. I knew nothing about the servant of Father 
Thomas. The Wednesday following, I met David, 
Isaac, and Joseph Arari, near the shop of Bahal. 
Isaac asked David how all had gone on. David re- 
plied that all was done that was necessary, and that 
there was no cause for fear. As they began to talk 
together privately, I withdrew, as I was not one who 
associated with the wealthiest of the Jews, and the 
Arari were of that class. The blood is required by 
the Jews for the preparation of the Paschal bread. 
They have been often accused of the same, and been 
condemned on that account. They have a book 
called Serir Hadurut (no such a book really exists) 
which concerns this matter; now that the light of 
Islam has shone on me, I place myself under the 
protection of those who hold the power in their hands." 
Such was his confession. The French Consul, un- 
able to find the blood, was bent on discovering more 
criminals; and the servant of David Arari, after further 
pressure, was ready to give further particulars. He 
said that, after the Father had been murdered, he was 



THE MURDER OF FA THER THOMAS. 95 

sent to a rich Israelite, Marad Farhi, to invite him to 
slaughter the servant of the Capuchin friar in the 
same way as his master had been slaughtered. When 
he took the message, he found the young merchant, 
Isaac Picciotto, present, and delivered his message 
before him. Next day this Picciotto and four other 
Jews, Marad Farhi, Meir, and Assan Farhi, and 
Aaron Stamboli, all men of wealth, came to his 
master's house, and informed David Arari that they 
had together murdered the Capuchin's serving-man 
in the house of Meir Farhi. On another occasion 
this same witness, Murad-el-Fallat, said that the 
murder of the servant took place in the house of 
David Arari ; but no importance was attached in this 
remarkable case to contradictions in the evidence. 

Picciotto, as son of a former Austrian Consul, a 
nephew of the Consul at Aleppo, was able to take 
refuge under the protection of Merlato, the Austrian 
Consul at Damascus. On the demand of Count 
Ratti-Menton, he was placed on his trial, but proved 
an alibi ; on the evening in question, he and his wife 
had been visiting an English gentleman, Mr. George 
Macson. 

Arari's servant now extended his revelations. He 
said that he had been present at the murder of the 
attendant on the Capuchin. This man had been 
bound and put to death by seven Jews, namely, by 
the four already mentioned, young Picciotto, Jacob 
Abul Afia, and Joseph Menachem Farhi. 

The French Consul was dissatisfied that Picciotto 
should escape. He demanded of the Austrian Consul 
that he should be delivered over to the Mussulman 



96 HISTORIC ODDITIES, 

Court to be tortured like the rest into confession. 
The Austrian Consul was in a difficult position. 
He stood alone over against a fanatical Christian 
and an embittered Mohammedan mob, and in resist- 
ance to the Egyptian Government and the representa- 
tive of France. But he did not hesitate, he absolutely 
refused to surrender Picciotto. The general excite- 
ment was now directed against the Consul ; he was 
subjected to suspicion as a favourer of the murderers, 
as even incriminated in the murder. His house was 
surrounded by spies, and every one who entered or 
left it was an object of mistrust. 

All Damascus was in agitation ; everyone sought 
to bring some evidence forward to help on the case 
against the Jews. According to one account, thirty- 
three — according to the report of the Austrian Consul, 
sixty-three Jewish children, of from four to ten years 
old, were seized, thrown into prison and tortured, to 
extract information from them as to the whereabouts 
of their parents and relations — those charged with 
the murder of the servant, and who had fled and 
concealed themselves. Those witnesses who had 
appeared before the court to testify to the innocence 
of the accused, were arrested, and treated with 
Oriental barbarity. Because Farach Katasch and 
Isaac Javoh had declared that they had seen Father 
Thomas on the day of the murder in another quarter 
of the town than the Ghetto, they were put to the 
torture. Isaac Javoh said he had seen Father Thomas 
on the road to Salachia, two miles from the Jews' 
quarter, and had there spoken to him. He was 
racked, and died on the rack. 



THE MURDER OF FA THER THOMAS. 97 

A boy admitted that he had noticed Father Thomas 
and his servant in another part of the town. For so 
saying, he was beaten with such barbarity that he 
died twenty-four hours after. A Jewish account 
from Beyrut says : " A Jew dedicated himself to 
martyrdom for the sanctity of the ever-blessed Name. 
He went before the Governor, and said to him, 
Is this justice you do? It is a slander that we 
employ blood for our Paschal bread ; and that it is 
so is known to all civilized governments. You say 
that the barber, who is a Jew, confessed it. I reply 
that he did so only under the stress of torture. Very 
likely the Father was murdered by Christians or 
by Turks.' The Governor, and the dragoman of the 
French Consul,- Baudin by name, retorted, ' What ! 
you dare to charge the murder on Turks or Chris- 
tians ? ' and he was ordered to be beaten and tortured 
to death. He was barbarously scourged and hide- 
ously tormented, and urged all the while to confess 
the truth. But he cried ever, ' Hear, O Israel ! The 
Lord thy God is one Lord ! ' and so crying he died." 

As the second murder, according to one account, 
was committed in the house of Meir Farhi, Count 
Ratti-Menton had the water conduits and drains torn 
up all round it, and in the drain near them was found 
a heap of bones, a bit of flesh, and a fragment of 
leather — according to one account a portion of a shoe, 
according to that of the Austrian Consul, a portion of 
a girdle. It had — supposing it to have belonged to 
the murdered man — been soaking for a month in the 
drain, nevertheless, the brother of the servant who 
had disappeared identified it as having belonged to 



9 S HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

the murdered man ! Dr. Massari, Italian physician 
to Sheriff Pacha, and Dr. Rinaldo, a doctor practising 
in Damascus, declared that the bones were human 
remains, but they were examined by Dr. Yograssi, 
w r ho proved them to be — sheep bones. One may 
judge from this what reliance can be placed on the 
assumption that the first collection of bones that were 
given Christian burial were those of a man, and of 
Father Thomas. As for the bit of flesh, it was 
thought to be a piece of liver, but whether of a human 
being or of a beast was uncertain or unascertained. 
The Jews' houses were now subjected to search. 
Count Ratti-Menton swept through the streets at the 
head of twenty sbirri, entering and ransacking houses 
at his own caprice, the Jews houses first of all, and 
then such houses of Christians as were supposed to 
be open as a harbour of shelter to the persecuted 
Israelites. Thus one night he rushed not only into 
the house of, but even the women's bedrooms of a 
merchant, Aiub, who stood under Austrian protection, 
hunting after secreted Jews, an outrage, in popular 
opinion, even in the East. 

The Jews charged with the murder of the servant 
had not been secured. The greater number of the 
well-to-do Hebrews had fled the town. A hue-and- 
cry was set up, and the country round was searched. 
Their families were taken up and tortured into con- 
fessing where they were. A German traveller then 
in Damascus says that the prisons were crowded with 
unfortunates, and that the pen refuses to detail the 
torments to which they were subjected to wring from 
them the information required. The wife of Meir 



THE MURDER OF FATHER THOMAS. 99 

Farhi and their child were imprisoned, and the child 
bastinadoed before its mother's eyes. At the three 
hundredth blow the mother's heart gave way, and she 
betrayed the hiding-place of her husband. He was 
seized. The hippopotamus scourge was flourished 
over his head, and knowing what his fellows had 
suffered, he confessed himself guilty. Assan Farhi, 
who was caught in his hiding-place, was imprisoned 
for a week in the French Consulate, and then de- 
livered over to Turkish justice. Bastinado and the 
rack convinced him of his guilt, but he found means 
to despatch from his dungeon a letter to Ibrahim 
Pacha protesting his innocence. 

It is as impossible as it is unnecessary to follow 
the story of the persecution in all its details. The 
circumstances have been given by various hands, and as 
names are not always recorded, it is not always pos- 
sible to distinguish whether single cases are recorded 
by different writers with slight variations, or whether 
they are reporting different incidents in the long 
story. 

The porter of the Jews' quarters, a man of sixty, 
died under bastinado, to which he was subjected for 
no other crime than not confessing that he had seen 
the murdered men enter the Ghetto. 

In the meantime, whilst this chase after those ac- 
cused of the second murder was going on, the seven 
merchants who had confessed to the murder of the 
Father had been lying in prison recovering from their 
wounds and bruises. As they recovered, the sense of 
their innocence became stronger in them than fear 
for the future and consideration of the past. They 



ioo HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

withdrew their confessions. Again were they beaten 
and tormented. Thenceforth they remained stedfast 
Two of the seven, David Arari, aged eighty, and 
Joseph Laniado, not much younger, died of their 
sufferings. Laniado had protested that he could bring 
evidence — the unimpeachable evidence of Christian 
merchants at Khasbin — that he had been with them 
at the time when it was pretended he had been en- 
gaged on the murder. But he died before these 
witnesses reached Damascus. Then Count Ratti- 
Menton pressed for the execution of the rest. 

So stood matters when Herr von Hailbronner, 
whose report on the whole case is both fullest and 
most reliable, for the sequence of events, arrived in 
Damascus. He took pains to collect all the most 
authentic information he could on every particular. 

Damascus was in the wildest commotion. All classes 
of the people were in a condition of fanatic excite- 
ment. The suffering caused by the pressure of the 
Egyptian government of Mohamed AH, the threat 
of an Oriental war, the plague which had broken out 
in Syria, the quarantine, impeding all trade, were 
matters that were thrust into the background by the 
all-engrossing story of the murder and the persecution 
of the Jews. 

The condition of the Hebrews in Damascus became 
daily more precarious. The old antagonism, jealousy 
of their riches, hatred caused by extortionate usury, 
were roused and armed for revenge. The barber, 
though he had confessed that he was guilty of the 
murder, was allowed to go scot-free, because he had 
betrayed his confederates. What an encouragement 



THE MURDER OF FATHER THOMAS. 101 

was offered to the rabble to indulge in false witness 
against rich Jews, whose wealth was coveted ! 

Mohamed Ali's government desired nothing 
better than the confiscation of their goods. A pack 
of ruffians sought occasion to extract money out 
of this persecution by bribes, or to purchase pardon 
for past offences by denouncing the innocent. 

It is well at this point to look a little closer at the 
French Consul, the Count Ratti-Menton. On him rests 
the guilt of this iniquitous proceeding, rather than on 
the Mussulman judges. He had been twice bankrupt 
when French Consul in Sicily. Then he had been 
sent as Consul to Tifiis, where his conduct had been 
so disreputable, that on the representation of the 
Russian Government he had been recalled. He had 
then been appointed Consul at Damascus. In spite 
of all this, and the discredit with which his conduct 
with regard to the Jews, on account of the murder of 
Father Thomas, had covered him, his part was warmly 
taken up by the Ultramontane Press, and the French 
Government did its utmost to shield him. M. Thiers 
even warmly defended him. The credit of France 
was thought to be at stake, and it was deemed advis- 
able to stand by the agent of France, and make out 
a case for him as best might be. 

It is quite possible, it is probable, that he was 
thoroughly convinced that the Jews were guilty, but 
that does not justify his mode of procedure. It is 
possible also that bribes may — as was said — have 
been offered him by the Jews if he would desist 
from his persecution, but that he refused these 
bribes shows that he was either not an unredeemed 



102 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

rascal, or that he conceived he had gone too far to 
withdraw. 

The Turkish and Egyptian authorities acted as 
always has been and will be their manner, after their 
nature, and in their own interest. We expect of them 
nothing else, but that the representative of one of the 
most enlightened nations of Europe, a man professing 
himself to be a Christian, and civilized, a member 
of a noble house, should hound on the ignorant and 
superstitious, and give rein to all the worst passions, 
of an Oriental rabble, against a helpless and harmless 
race, that has been oppressed, and ill-treated, and 
slandered for centuries, is never to be looked over and 
forgiven. The name of Ratti-Menton must go down 
branded to posterity ; and it is to be regretted that 
M. Thiers should have allowed his love of his country 
to so carry him away as to induce him to throw the 
shield over a man of whose guilt he must have been 
perfectly aware, having full information in his hands. 
This shows us to what an extent Gallic vanity will blind 
the Gallic eye to the plain principles of truth and right. 

Ratti-Menton had his agents to assist him— Baudin, 
chief of his bureau at the Consulate ; Francois Salins, 
a native of Aleppo, who acted as interpreter, spy, and 
guard to the Consulate ; Father Tosti, a French 
Lazarist, who, according to the Austrian Consul, 
" seemed to find in this case an opportunity for 
avenging on the race the death of his Divine Master ;" 
also a Christian Arab, Sehibli Ayub, a man of bad 
character, who was well .received by Ratti-Menton, 
because of his keenness as spy and readiness as 
denunciator. 



THE MURDER OF FATHER THOMAS. 103 

What followed now passes all belief. After that 
countless poor Jews had been accused, beaten, tortured, 
and killed, it occurred to the judges that it would be 
as well to ascertain the motive for the crime. It had 
been said by those who had confessed that the Pater 
and his servant had been put to death in order to 
obtain their blood to mingle with the dough for the 
Paschal wafer. The disappearance of the two men 
took place on February 5th. Easter fell that year on 
April 1 8th, so that the blood would have to be 
preserved two months and a half. That was an 
inconsequence which neither the French Consul nor 
the Egyptian authorities stooped to consider. Orders 
were issued that the Talmud and other sacred books 
of the Jews should be explored to see whether, or 
rather where in them, the order was given that human 
blood should be mingled with the Paschal dough. 
When no such commands could be discovered, it 
was concluded that the editions presented for ex- 
amination were purposely falsified. 

Now, there were distinct indications pointing in 
quite another direction,, which, if followed, might have 
elucidated the case, and revealed the actual criminals. 
But these indications were in no case followed. 
Wildon Pieritz, an Evangelical Missionary, then in 
Damascus, as well as the Austrian Consul, agree in 
stating that three days before the disappearance of 
Father Thomas he was seen in violent altercation 
with a Turkish mule-driver, who was heard to swear 
he would be the death of the priest. The altercation 
was so violent that the servant of Father Thomas 
seized the mule-driver by the throat and maltreated 



104 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

him so that blood flowed — probably from his nose. 
Father Thomas lost his temper and cursed the mussul- 
man and his religion. The scene created great 
commotion, and a number of Turks were very angry, 
amongst them was one, a merchant, Abu Yekhyeh, 
who distinguished himself. Wildon Pieritz in a let- 
ter to the Journal de Smyme on May 14th, 1840, 
declares that when the news of the disappearance of 
Father Thomas began to excite attention, this 
merchant, Abu Yekhyeh, hanged himself. 

We may well inquire how it was that none of these 
facts came to be noticed. The answer is to hand. 
Every witness that gave evidence which might excul- 
pate the accused Jews, and turn attention in another 
direction, was beaten and tortured, consequently, those 
who could have revealed the truth were afraid to do so. 

Even among the Mohammedans complaints arose 
that the French Consul was acting in contravention 
to their law, and a feeling gradually grew that a great 
injustice was being committed — that the Jews were 
innocent. Few dared allow this in the first fever of 
popular excitement, but nevertheless it awoke and 
spread. 

At first the Austrian Consul had been subjected not 
to annoyance only, but to danger of life, so violent 
had been the popular feeling against him because of 
the protection he accorded to one of the accused. 
Fortunately Herr Merlato was a man of pluck. He 
was an old soldier who had distinguished himself as a 
marine officer. He not only resolutely protected young 
Picciotto, but he did his utmost to hinder the pro- 
ceedings of Ratti-Menton ; he invoked the assist- 



THE MURDER OF FATHER THOMAS. 105 

ance of the representatives of the other European 
Powers, and finally every Consul, except the French, 
agreed to unite with him in representations to their 
governments of the iniquitous proceedings of Ratti- 
Menton, and to use their influence with the Egyptian 
authorities to obtain the release of the unhappy 
accused. 

The bastinadoes and tortures now ceased. Merlato 
obtained the release of several of those who were in 
confinement ; and finally the only Jews who remained 
in prison were the brothers Arari, Mussa Salonichi, 
and the renegade Abul Afia. Of the supposed mur- 
derers of the servant only the brothers Farhi were 
still held in chains. 

Matters were in this condition when the news of 
what had taken place at Damascus reached Europe 
and set all the Jews in commotion. Every effort was 
made by them, in Vienna, Leipzig, Paris and London, 
indeed in all the great cities of Europe, to convince 
the public of the absurdity of the charge, and to urge 
the governments to interfere in behalf of the sufferers. 

Finally all the representatives of the European 
governments at Alexandria, with the exception of the 
French, remonstrated with Mohamed Ali. They de- 
manded that the investigation should be begun de 
novo ; the French Consul-General, M. Cochelet, alone 
objected. But the action of the Jews of Europe had 
more influence with Mohamed Pacha than the repre- 
sentations of the Consuls. The house of Rothschild 
had taken the matter up, and Sir Moses Montefiore 
started from London, and M. Cremieux from Paris 
as a diplomatic embassy to the Viceroy at Alex- 



io6 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

andria to convince him, by such means as is most 
efficacious to an Oriental despot, of the innocence of 
the accused at Damascus. 

The arguments these delegates employed were so 
extremely satisfactory to the mind of Mohamed 
Pacha, that he quashed the charges against the Jews 
of Damascus, in spite of the vehement protest of M. 
Cochelet, the representative of France. When the 
Viceroy issued a firman ordering the incriminated 
Jews to be discharged as innocent and suffered to 
abide in peace, M. Cochelet strove in vain to have the 
firman qualified or altered into a pardon. 

Thus ended one of the most scandalous cases of this 

century. Unfortunate, innocent men were tortured 

and put to death for a crime that had never been 

proved. That the two Europeans had been murdered 

was merely matter of conjecture. No bodies had been 

found. There was no evidence worth a rush against 

the accused, and no motive adduced deserving of grave 

consideration. " What inhumanities were committed 

during the eight months of this persecution," wrote 

Herr Von Hailbronner, " will never be wholly known. 

But it must call up a blush of shame in the face of an 

European to remember that Europeans provoked, 

favoured and stimulated it to the last." 

Authorities : " Morgenland and Abendland,'' by Herr Von 
Hailbronner, — who, as already mentioned, was present in Dam- 
ascus through part of the time. " Damascia," by C. H. Lowen- 
stein, Rodelheim, 1840. Reports and debates in the English 
Parliament at the time. The recently published Diaries of 
Sir Moses Montefiore, 2 vols., 1890 ; his Centenal Biography, 
1884, vol. I., p. 213-288 ; and the article summing up the whole 
case in "Der Neue Pitaval," by Dr. J. C. Hitzig and Dr. W. 
Haring, 1857, Vol. I. 



Some Hccusationa against 3£wa. 

THE story just given of the atrocious treatment of 
the Jews of Damascus on a false accusation naturally 
leads to a brief sketch of their treatment in the 
Middle Ages on similar charges. Not, indeed, that 
we can deal with all of the outrages committed on 
the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — that would 
require volumes — but only notice some of those 
which they have had to suffer on the same or ana- 
logous false charges. 

These false accusations range under three heads : — 

1. They have been charged with poisoning the 
wells when there has been an outbreak of plague and 
malignant fever. 

2. They have been charged with stealing the Host 
and with stabbing it. 

3. Lastly, with having committed murders in order 
to possess themselves of Christian blood, to mingle 
with the dough wherewith to make their Paschal 
cakes. 

We will leave the first case on one side altogether, 

and as we have already considered one instance — not 

by any means the last case of such an accusation 

levied against them in Europe — we will take it before 

we come to the instances of their being accused of 

stealing the Host. 

But zvhy should they be supposed to require 
107 



io8 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

Christian blood ? One theory was that by common 
participation in it, the Jewish community was closer 
bound together ; another, that it had a salutary 
medicinal effect. That is to say, having made up 
their minds in the Middle Ages that Jews did sacri- 
fice human beings and drink their blood, they beat 
about for the explanation, and caught at any wild 
theory that was proposed. 1 

John Dubravius in his Bohemian History, under the 
year 1305, relates: "On Good Friday the Jews com- 
mitted an atrocious crime against a Christian man, 
for they stretched him naked to a cross in a con- 
cealed place, and then, standing round, spat on him, 
beat him, and did all they could to him which is 
recorded of their having done to Christ. This 
atrocious act was avenged by the people of Prague 
upon the Jews, with newly-invented punishments, and 
of their property that was confiscated, a monument 
was erected." But there were cases earlier than this. 
Perhaps the earliest is that of S. William of Nor- 
wich, in 1 144; next, S. Richard of Paris, 1179; then 
S. Henry of Weissemburg, in Alsace, in 1220; then 
S. Hugh of Lincoln, in 1255, the case of which is 
recorded by Matthew Paris. A woman at Lincoln 
lost her son, a child eight years old. He was found 
in a well near a Jew's house. The Jew was arrested, 
and promised his life if he would accuse his brethren 
of the murder. He did so, but was hanged never- 

1 Antonius Bonfinius : Rer. Hungaricarum Dec, v. 1., 3, 
gives four reasons. Thomas Cantipratensis, Lib. II., c. 29, 
gives another and preposterous one, not to be quoted even in 
Latin. 



SOME A CCUS A TIONS A GAINS T JE I VS. 109. 

theless. On this accusation ninety-two of the richest 
Jews in Lincoln were arrested, their goods seized to 
replenish the exhausted Royal exchequer ; eighteen, 
were hung forthwith, the rest were reserved in the 
Tower of London for a similar fate, but escaped 
through the intervention of the Franciscans, who,, 
says Matthew Paris, were bribed by -the Jews of 
England to obtain their release. On May 15th, 1256, 
thirty-five of the wretched Jews were released. We 
are not told what became of the remaining thirty-nine, 
whether they had been discharged as innocent, or 
died in prison. The story of little Hugh has been 
charmingly told in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. 

A girl of seven years was found murdered at 
Pforzheim, in 127 1 ; the Jews were accused, mobbed,, 
maltreated, and executed. In 1286, a boy, name 
unknown, disappeared in Munich, with the same 
results to the Jews. In 1292, a boy of nine, at 
Constance — -same results. In 1303 "the perfidious 
Jews, accustomed to the shedding of Christian 
blood," says Siffrid, priest of Meisen, in 1307, 
" cruelly murdered a certain scholar, named Conrad, 
son of a knight of Weissensee, in Thuringia, after that 
they had tortured him, cut all his sinews, and opened 
his veins. This took place before Easter. The 
Almighty, who is glorious in His Saints, however did 
not suffer the murder of the innocent boy to remain 
concealed, but destroyed the murderers, and adorned 
the martyrdom of their innocent victim with miracles. 
For when the said Jews had taken the body of the 
lad to many places in Thuringia to bury it secretly, 
by God's disposition they were always foiled in their 



no HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

attempt to make away with it. Wherefore, returning 
to Weissensee, they hung it to a vine. Then the 
truth having been revealed, the soldiers rushed out of 
the castle, and the citizens rose together with the 
common people, headed by Frederick, son of Albert 
Landgrave of Thuringia, and killed the Jews tumult- 
ously." 

The story of S. Werner, the boy murdered by the 
Jews in 1287, at Wesel, on the Rhine, and buried at 
Bacharach, is well known. The lovely chapel erected 
over his body is now a ruin. But Werner was not 
the only boy martyred by the Jews on the Rhine. 
Another was S. Johanettus of Siegburg. 

S. Andrew of Heiligenwasser, near Innsbruck, is 
another case, in 1462; S. Ludwig of Ravensburg, in 
1429, again another. Six boys were said to have 
been murdered by Jews at Ratisbon, in i486 ; and 
several cases come to us out of Spanish history. 
In Poland, in 1598, in the village of Swinarzew, near 
Lositz, lived a peasant, Matthias Petrenioff, with his 
wife, Anna. They had several children, among them 
a boy named Adalbert. One day in Holy Week the 
boy was in the fields ploughing with his father. In 
the evening he was sent home, but instead of going 
home directly, he turned aside to visit the village of 
Woznik, in which lived a Jew, Mark, who owned a 
pawnshop, and had some mills. The son of Mark, 
named Aaron, and the son-in-law, Isaac, overtook the 
boy as they were returning to Woznik in their cart 
and took him up into it. 

As the child did not return home, his father went 
in search of him, and hearing that he had been seen 



SOME ACCUSA TIONS AGAINST JE WS. in 

In the cart between the two Jews, he went to the 
house of Mark and inquired for him. Mark's wife 
said she had not seen him. The peasant now be- 
came frightened. He remembered the stories that 
floated about concerning the murder of Christian 
•children by Jews, and concluded that his boy had 
been put to death by Mark and his co-religionists. 
At length the body of the child was discovered in a 
pond, probably gnawed by rats, — but the marks on 
the body were at once supposed to be due to the 
weapons of the Jews. Immense excitement reigned 
in the district, and finally two servants of the Jews, 
both* Christians, one Athanasia, belonging to the 
Greek Church, and another, Christina, a Latin, con- 
fessed that their masters had murdered the boy. 
He had been concealed in a cellar till the eve of the 
Passover, when the chief Jews of the district had been 
assembled, and the boy had been bled to death in 
their presence. The blood was put into small phials 
and each Jew provided with one at least. This led to 
a general arrest of the Jews, when the rack produced 
the requisite confession. Isaac, son-in-law of Mark, 
in whose house the butchery was said to have taken 
place, declared under torture that the Jews partook of 
the blood of Christians in bread, and also in wine, but 
he professed to be unable to account for the custom. 
Filled, however, with remorse for having thus falsely 
accused his people and his relatives, he hung himself 
in prison. Mark and Aaron were condemned to be 
torn to pieces alive ; and, of course, the usual spoliation 
ensued. We have the account of this atrocious 
judicial murder from the pen of a Jesuit, Szembeck, 



lis HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

who extracted the particulars from the acts of the 
court of Lublin, in which the case was tried, and from 
those drawn up by order of the bishop of the diocese 
of Luz, in which the murder occurred, and who 
obtained or sanctioned a canonization of the boy- 
martyr. 

Another still more famous case is that of S. Simeon,, 
of Trent, in 1475, very full details of which are given 
in the Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandists, as the victim 
was formally canonized by Pope Benedict XIV., and 
the Roman Martyrology asserts the murder by the 
Jews in these terms : — 

" At Trent (on March 24th) the martyrdom of S. 
Simeon, a little child, cruelly slain by the Jews, who 
was glorified afterwards by several miracles." 

The story as told and approved at the canonization 
was as follows : On Tuesday, in Holy Week, 147 S> 
the Jews met to prepare for the approaching Passover, 
in the house of one of their number, named Samuel ; 
and it was agreed between three of them, Samuel,. 
Tobias, and Angelus, that a child should be crucified, as 
an act of revenge against the Christians who cruelly 
maltreated them. Their difficulty, however, was how 
to get one. Samuel sounded his servant Lazarus, and 
attempted to bribe him into procuring one, but the 
suggestion so scared the fellow that he ran away. 
On the Thursday, Tobias undertook to get the boy,, 
and going out in the evening, whilst the people were 
in church, he prowled about till he found a child 
sitting on the threshold of his father's door, aged 
twenty-nine months, and named Simeon. The Jew 
began to coax the little fellow to follow him, and the 



SOME ACCUSA TIONS AGAINST JE WS. 113 

boy, after being lured away, was led to the house of 
Samuel, whence during the night he was conveyed 
to the synagogue, where he was bled to death, and 
his body pierced with awls. 

All Friday the parents sought their son, but 
found him not. The Jews, alarmed at the proceedings 
of the magistrates, who had taken the matter up, con- 
sulted together what was to be done. It was resolved 
to put the body back into its clothes and throw it into 
the stream that ran under. Samuel's window, but 
which was there crossed by a grating. Tobias was 
to go to the bishop and magistrates and inform them 
that a child's body was entangled in the grate. This 
was done. Thereupon John de Salis, the bishop, and 
James de Sporo, the governor, went to see the spot, 
had the body removed, and conveyed to the cathedral. 
As, according to popular superstition, blood was 
supposed to flow from the wound when a murderer 
drew near, the officers of justice were cautioned to 
observe the crowds as they passed. 

It was declared that blood exuded as Tobias 

approached. On the strength of this, the house of 

Samuel and the synagogue were examined, and it is 

asserted that blood and other traces of the butchery 

were found. The most eminent physicians were 

called to investigate the condition of the corpse, and 

they pronounced that the child had been strangled, 

and that the wounds were due to stabs. The popular 

voice now accusing the Jews, the magistrates seized 

on them and threw them into prison, and on the 

accusation of a renegade more than five of the Jews 

were sentenced to death. They were broken on the 

H 



ii4 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

wheel and then burnt. The body of the child is 
enshrined at Trent, and a basin of the blood pre- 
served as a relic in the cathedral. 

This must suffice for instances of accusations of 
murder for religious purposes brought against the 
Jews. In every case false. Another charge brought 
against them was Sacrilege. Fleury in his Ecclesias- 
tical History gives one instance. " In the little town 
of Pulca, in Passau, a layman found a bloody Host be- 
fore the house of a Jew, lying in the street upon some 
straw. The people thought that this Host was con- 
secrated, and washed it and took it to the priest, that 
it might be taken to the church, where a crowd of 
devotees assembled, concluding that the blood had 
flowed miraculously from wounds dealt it by the Jews. 
On this supposition, and without any other ex- 
amination, or any other judicial procedure, the 
Christians fell on the Jews, and killed several of 
them ; but wiser heads judged that this was rather 
for the sake of pillage than to avenge a sacrilege. 
This conjecture was justified by a similar event, that 
took place a little while before at Neuburg, in the 
same diocese, where a certain clerk placed an uncon- 
secrated Host steeped in blood in a church, but 
confessed afterwards before the bishop that he had 
dipped this Host in blood for the purpose of raising 
hostility against the Jews." x 

In 1290, a Jew named Jonathan was accused in 

Paris of having thrown a Host into the Seine. It 

floated. Then he stabbed it with his knife, and 

blood flowed. The Jew was burnt alive, and the 

1 Fleury, Hist. Eccl., vi. p. no. 



SOME ACCUSATIONS AGAINST JEWS. 115, 

people clamored for a general persecution of the 
Hebrews. 

In Bavaria, in 1337, at Dechendorf, some Hosts 
were discovered which the Jews had stabbed. The 
unhappy Hebrews were burnt alive. 

In 1326, a Jew convert, a favourite of Count 
William the Good, of Flanders, was accused of having; 
struck an image of the Madonna, which thereupon 
bled. The Jew was tortured, but denied the accusa- 
tion. Then he was challenged to a duel by a fanatic. 
He, wholly unaccustomed to the use of weapons, 
succumbed. That sufficed to prove his guilt. He was 
burnt. 

In 1 35 1, a Jew convert was accused, at Brussels, of 
having pretended, on three occasions, to communicate, 
in order that he might send the Hosts to his brethren 
at Cologne, who stabbed them, and blood flowed. 

The traveller who has been in Brussels must cer- 
tainly have noticed the painted windows all down 
the nave of S. Gudule, in the side aisles, to left and 
right. They represent, in glowing colours, the story 
of the miraculous Hosts preserved in the chancel 
to the north of the choir, where seven red lamps burn 
perpetually before them. 

The story is as follows: In 1370, a rich Jew of 
Enghien bribed a converted Hebrew, named John of 
Louvain, for 60 pieces of gold, to steal for him some 
Hosts from the Chapel of S. Catherine. Hardly, 
however, had the Jew, Jonathan, received the wafers, 
before he was attacked by robbers and murdered. His 
wife, alarmed, and thinking that his death was due to 
the sacrilege, resolved to get rid of the wafers. It may 



n6 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

have been remarked in the stories of murders by 
Jews, that they were represented as finding great 
difficulty in getting rid of the dead bodies. In these 
stories of sacrilege, no less difficulty was encountered 
in causing the disappearance of the Hosts. More- 
over, the Jews invariably proceeded in the most round- 
about and clumsy way, inviting discovery. The 
widow of the murdered Jonathan conveyed the Hosts 
to the synagogue at Brussels. There, on Good 
Friday, the Jews took advantage of the Hosts to stab 
them with their knives, in mockery of Christ and the 
Christian religion. But blood squirted from the trans- 
fixed wafers. In terror, they also resolved to get rid 
of the miraculous Hosts, and found no better means of 
so doing than bribing a renegade Jewess, named 
Catharine, to carry them to Cologne. They promised 
her twenty pieces of gold for her pains. She took 
the Hosts, but, troubled in conscience, revealed what 
she had undertaken to her confessor. The ecclesias- 
tical authorities were informed, Catherine was arrested, 
imprisoned, and confessed. All the Jews dwelling in 
Brussels were taken up and tortured ; but in spite of 
all torture refused to acknowledge their guilt. How- 
ever, a chaplain of the prince, a man named Jean 
Morelli, pretended to have overheard a converted Jew 
say, " Why do not these dogs make a clean breast ? 
They know that they are guilty-" This man was that 
John of Louvain who had procured the theft of the 
wafers. He was seized. He at once confessed his par- 
ticipation in the crime. ■ That sufficed. All the ac- 
cused, he himself included, were condemned to death. 
They were executed with hideous cruelty; after having 



SOME ACCUSATIONS AGAINST JEWS. 117 

had their flesh torn off by red-hot pinchers, they were 
attached to stakes and burnt alive, on the Vigil of the 
Ascension, 1370. Every year a solemn procession of 
the Saint Sacrement de Miracle commemorates this 
atrocity, or the miracle which led to it. 

Unfortunately, there exists no doubt whatever as 
to the horrible execution of the Jews on the false 
charge of having stolen the Hosts, but there is very 
good reason for disbelieving altogether the story of 
the miracle of the bleeding Hosts. 

Now, it is somewhat remarkable that not a word is 
said about this miracle before 1435, that is to say, for 
65 years, by any writer of the period and of the 
country. The very first mention of it is found in a 
Papal bull of that date, addressed to the Dean and 
Chapter of S. Gudule, relative to a petition made by 
them that, as they wanted money for the erection 
of a chapel to contain these Hosts, indulgences might 
be granted to those who would contribute thereto. 
The Pope granted their request. 

Now, it so happens that the official archives at 
Brussels contains two documents of the date, 1370, 
relative to this trial. The first of these is the register 
of the accounts of the receiver-general of the Duke of 
Brabant. In that are the items of expenditure for 
the burning of these Jews, a receipt, and the text is as 
follows : " Item, recepta de bonis dictorum judeorum, 
postquam combusti fuerant circa ascensionem Domini 
lxx, quse defamata fuerant de sacramentis punice et 
furtive acceptis." That is to say, that a certain sum 
flowed into the Duke's exchequer from the goods of 
the Jews, burnt for having "guiltily and furtively 



n3 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

obtained the Hosts." " Punice" is an odd word, but its 
signification is clear enough. Now, in 1581, on May 
1st, the magistrates of Brussels forbade the exercise of 
the Catholic religion, in a proclamation in which, when 
mentioning certain frauds committed by the Roman 
Church, they speak of " The Sacrament of the Miracle, 
which," say they, "by documentary evidence can be 
proved never to have bled nor to have been stabbed." 
No question — they had seen this entry in which no 
mention is made of the stabbing — no allusion made to 
the bleeding. Moreover, in the same archives is the 
contemporary episcopal letter addressed to the Dean 
of S. Gudule on the subject of these Hosts. In this 
document there is no mention made by the bishop of 
the stabbing or of the miracle. It is stated that the 
Hosts were obtained by the Jews in order that they 
might insult and outrage them. It is curious that the 
letter should not specify their having done this, and 
done it effectually, with their knives and daggers. 
Most assuredly, also, had there been any suspicion of 
a miracle, the bishop would have referred to it in the 
letter relative to the custody of these very Hosts. 

After the whole fable of the stabbing and bleeding 
had grown up, no doubt applied to these Hosts from a 
preceding case of accusation against Jews, that of 
135 1, less than thirty years before, it was thought 
advisable, if not necessary, to produce some evidence 
in favour of the story ; but as no such evidence was 
obtainable, it was manufactured in a very ingenious 
manner. The entry in the register of accounts was 
published by the Pere Ydens, after a notary had been 
required to collate the text. This notary — his name 



SOME A CCUS A TIONS A GAINS T JE WS. 119 

was Van Asbroek — gave his testimony that he had 
made an exact and literal transcript of the entry. 
What he and the Pere Ydens gave as their exact, literal 
transcript was ''■ recepta de bonis dictorum Judceorum 
.... quae defamata fuerant de sacrament puncto 
et furtive accept." Ingenious, but disingenuous. In 
the first place they altered " sacramentis " from plural 
into singular, and then, the adverb punice, " guiltily," 
into puncto, stabbed. 

Subsequently, Father Ydens and his notary have 
been quoted and requoted as authoritative witnesses. 
However, the document is now in the Archives at 
Brussels, and has been lithographed from a photograph 
for the examination of such as have not the means of 
obtaining access to the original. 1 The last jubilee of 
this apocryphal miracle was celebrated at Brussels in 
July, 1870. 

Le Jubile d'un faux Miracle (extrait de la Revue de 
Belgique), Bruxelles, 1870. 



Zbe Coburo fIDausoIeum, 

At the east end of the garden of the Ducal residence 
of Coburg is a small, tastefully constructed mausoleum, 
adorned with allegorical subjects, in which are laid the 
remains of the deceased dukes. Near the mausoleum 
rise a stately oak, a clump of rhododendron, a cluster 
of acacias, and a group of yews and weeping-willows. 

The mausoleum is hidden from the palace by a 
plantation of young pines. 

The Castle of Coburg is one of the most interesting 
and best preserved in Germany. It stands on a 
height above the little town, and contains much rich 
wood-carving of the 15 th and 16th centuries. Below 
the height, but a little above the town, is the more 
modern residence of the Dukes Ehrenburg, erected in 
1626 by the Italian architect Bonallisso, and finished 
in 1693. It has that character of perverse revolt 
against picturesqueness that marked all the edifices of 
the period. It has been restored, not in the best style, 
at the worst possible epoch, 18 16. The south front 
remains least altered ; it is adorned with a, handsome 
gateway, over which is the inscription, " Fried ernahrt, 
Unfried verzehrt " — not easily rendered in English : — 

" Peace doth cherish — 
Strife makes perish." 

The princes of Coburg by their worth and kindly be- 



THE COBURG MAUSOLEUM. 121 

haviour have for a century drawn to them the hearts 
of their subjects, and hardly a princely house in Ger- 
many is, and has been, more respected and loved. 

Duke Franz died shortly after the battle of Jena. 
During his reign, by his thrift, geniality, and love of 
justice he had won to his person the affections of his 
people, though they resented the despotic character 
of his government under his Minister Kretschmann. 
He was twice married, but left issue only by the 
second wife, Augusta, a princess of Reuss, who 
inherited the piety and virtues which seem to be 
inrooted in that worthy house. 

Only a few weeks after her return from Brussels, 
where she had seen her son, recently crowned King of 
the Belgians, did the Duchess Augusta of Sachsen- 
Coburg die in her seventy-sixth year, November i6th ? 
183 1. The admiration and love this admirable princess 
had inspired drew crowds to visit the body, as it lay 
in state in the residence at Coburg, prior to the funeral, 
which took place on the 19th, before day-break, by the 
light of torches. The funeral was attended by men 
and women of all classes eager to express their attach- 
ment to the deceased, and respect for the family. A 
great deal was said, and fabled, concerning this 
funeral. It was told and believed that the Dowager 
Duchess had been laid in the family vault adorned 
with her diamond rings and richest necklaces. She 
was the mother of kings, and the vulgar believed that 
every royal and princely house with which she was 
allied had contributed some jewel towards the decora- 
tion of her body. 

Her eldest son, Ernst I., succeeded his father in 



122 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

1806 as Duke of Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld, and in 
1826 became Duke of Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha. The 
second son, Ferdinand, married in 18 16 the wealthiest 
heiress of Hungary, the Princess Rohary, and his son, 
Ferdinand, became in 1836 King of Portugal, and his 
grandson, Ferdinand, by his second son, is the present 
reigning Prince of Bulgaria. 

The third son, Leopold, married Charlotte, only 
daughter of George IV. of England, and in 1831 
became King of the Belgians. Of the five daughters, 
the eldest was married to the Grand-Duke Constantine 
of Russia, the second married the Duke of Kent, in 
1 8 18, and was the mother of our Queen, Victoria. 
The third married Duke Alexander of Wurtemberg. 

Among those who were present at the funeral of 
the Duchess Augusta was a Bavarian, named Andreas 
Stubenrauch, an artisan then at Coburg. He was the 
son of an armourer, followed his father's profession, 
and had settled at Coburg as locksmith. He was a 
peculiarly ugly man, with low but broad brow, dark- 
brown bristly hair, heavy eyebrows and small cunning 
grey eyes. His nose was a snub, very broad with 
huge nostrils, his complexion was pale ; he had a large 
mouth, and big drooping underlip. His short stature, 
his lack of proportion in build, and his uncomely 
features, gave him the appearance of a half-witted 
man. But though he was not clever he was by no 
means a fool. His character was in accordance with his 
apperance. He was a sullen, ill-conditioned, in- 
temperate man. 

Stubenrauch had been one of the crowd that had 
passed by the bed on which the Duchess lay in state, 



THE COBURG MAUSOLEUM. 123 

and had cast covetous eyes at the jewellery with 
which the body was adorned. He had also attended 
the funeral, and had come to the conclusion that the 
Duchess was buried with all the precious articles he 
had noticed about her, as exposed to view before the 
burial, and with a great deal more, which popular 
gossip asserted to have been laid in the coffin with 
her. 

The thought of all this waste of wealth clung to 
his mind, and Stubenrauch resolved to enter the 
mausoleum and rob the body. The position of the 
vault suited his plans, far removed and concealed from 
the palace, and he made little account of locks and 
bars, which were likely to prove small hindrances to 
an accomplished locksmith. 

To carry his plan into execution, he resolved on 
•choosing the night of August 18-19, 1832. On this 
evening he sat drinking in a low tavern till 10 o'clock, 
when he left, returned to his lodgings, where he 
collected the tools he believed he would require, a 
candle and flint and steel, and then betook himself to 
the mausoleum. 

In the first place, he found it necessary to climb 
over a wall of boards that encircled the portion of the 
grounds where was the mausoleum, and then, when 
he stood before the building, he found that to effect 
an entrance would take him more time and give him 
more work than he had anticipated. 

The mausoleum was closed by an iron gate formed 
of strong bars eight feet high, radiating from a centre 
in a sort of semicircle and armed with sharp spikes. 
He found it impossible to open the lock, and he was 



i2 4 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

therefore obliged to climb over the gate, regardless of 
the danger of tearing himself on the barbs. There 
was but a small space between the spikes and the 
arch of the entrance, but through this he managed to 
squeeze his way, and so reach the interior of the build- 
ing, without doing himself any injury. 

Here he found a double stout oaken door in the floor 
that gave access to the vault. The two valves were 
so closely dovetailed into one another and fitted so 
exactly, that he found the utmost difficulty in getting 
a tool between them. He tried his false keys in vain 
on the lock, and for a long time his efforts to prise 
the lock open with a lever were equally futile. At 
length by means of a wedge he succeeded in breaking a 
way through the junction of the doors, into which he 
could insert a bar, and then he heaved at one valve 
with all his might, throwing his weight on the lever. 
It took him fully an hour before he could break open 
the door. Midnight struck as the valve, grating on 
its hinges, was thrown back. But now a new and un- 
expected difficulty presented itself. There was no 
flight of steps descending into the vault, as he had 
anticipated, and he did not know the depth of the 
lower pavement from where he stooped, and he was 
afraid to light a candle and let it down to explore 
the distance. 

But Stubenrauch was not a man to be dismayed by 
difficulties. He climbed back over the iron-spiked 
gates into the open air, and sought out a long and 
stout pole, with which to sound the depth, so as to 
know what measures he was to take to descend. 
Going into the Ducal orchard, he pulled up a pole to 



THE COBURG MAUSOLEUM. 125 

which a fruit tree was tied, and dragged it to the 
mausoleum, and with considerable difficulty got it 
through the gateway, which he again surmounted with 
caution and without injury to himself. 

Then, leaning over the opening, holding the pole in 
both hands, he endeavoured to feel the depth of the 
vault. In so doing he lost his balance, and the weight 
of the pole dragged him down, and he fell between 
two coffins some twelve feet below the floor of the 
upper chamber. There he lay for some little while 
unconscious, stunned by his fall. When he came to 
himself, he sat up, felt about with his hands to 
ascertain where he was, and considered what next 
should be done. 

Without a moment's thought as to how he was to 
escape from his position, about the possibility of which 
he was not in the smallest doubt, knowing as he did 
his own agility and readiness with expedients, he set 
to work to accomplish his undertaking. With com- 
posure Stubenrauch now struck a light and kindled 
the candle. When he had done this, he examined 
the interior of the vault, and the coffins he found 
there, so as to select the right one. Those of the 
Duchess Augusta and her husband the late Duke were 
very much alike, so much so that the ruffian had some 
difficulty in deciding which was the right one. He 
chose, however, correctly that which seemed freshest, 
and he tore off it the black cover. Under this he found 
the coffin very solid, fastened by two locks, which 
were so rusted that his tools would not turn in them. 
He had not his iron bar and other implements with 
him now ; they were above on the floor of the upper 



i2b HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

chamber. With great difficulty he succeeded at length 
in breaking one of the hinges, and he was then able to 
snap the lower lock, whereas that at the top resisted 
all his efforts. However, the broken hinge and lock 
enabled him to lift the lid sufficiently for him to look 
inside. Now he hoped to be able to insert his hand, 
and remove all the jewellery he supposed was laid 
there with the dead lady. To his grievous disappoint- 
ment he saw nothing save the fading remains of the 
Duchess, covered with a glimmering white mould, that 
seemed to him to be phosphorescent. The body was. 
in black velvet, the white luminous hands crossed over 
the breast. Stubenrauch was not the man to feel 
either respect for the dead or fear of aught supernatural. 
With both hands he sustained the heavy lid of the 
coffin as he peered in, and the necessity for using both 
to support the weight prevented his profane hand 
from being laid on the remains of an august and 
pious princess. Stubenrauch did indeed try more 
than once to sustain the lid with one hand, that he 
might grope with the other for the treasures he fancied 
must be concealed there, but the moment he removed 
one hand the lid crashed down. 

Disappointed in his expectations, Stubenrauch now 
replaced the cover, and began to consider how he 
might escape. But now — and now only — did he dis- 
cover that it was not possible for him to get out of the 
vault into which he had fallen. The pole on which 
he had placed his confidence was too short to reach to 
the opening above. Every effort made by Stubenrauch 
to scramble out failed. He was caught in a trap — and 
what a trap ! Nemesis had fallen on the ruffian at 



THE COBURG MAUSOLEUM. 127 

once, on the scene of his crime, and condemned him 
to betray himself. 

Although now for the first time deadly fear came 
over him, as he afterward asserted, it was fear because 
he anticipated punishment from men, not any dread 
of the -wrath of the spirits of those into whose domain 
he had entered. When he had convinced himself 
that escape was quite impossible, he submitted to the 
inevitable, lay down between the two coffins and tried 
to go to sleep ; but, as he himself admitted, he was 
not able to sleep soundly. 

Morning broke — it was Sunday, and a special 
festival at Coburg, for it was the twenty-fifth anniver- 
sary of the accession of the Duke, so that the town 
was in lively commotion, and park and palace were 
also in a stir. 

Stubenrauch sat up and waited in hopes of hearing 
someone draw near who could release him. About 
9 o'clock in the morning he heard steps on the gravel, 
and at once began to shout for assistance. 

The person who had approached ran away in 
alarm, declaring that strange and unearthly noises 
issued from the Ducal mausoleum. The guard was 
apprised, but would not at first believe the report. 
At length one of the sentinels was despatched to the 
spot, and he returned speedily with the tidings that 
there certainly was a man in the vault. He had 
peered through the grating at the entrance and had 
seen the door broken open and a crowbar and other 
articles lying about. 

The gate was now opened, and Stubenrauch re- 
moved in the midst of an assembled crowd of angry 



128 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

and dismayed spectators. He was removed to prison, 
tried, and condemned to eighteen months with hard 
labour. 

That is not the end of the story. After his dis- 
charge, Stubenrauch never settled into regular work. 
In 1836 he was taken up for theft, and again on the 
same charge in 1844. In the year 1854 he was dis- 
covered dead in a little wood near his home ; between 
the fingers of his right hand was a pinch of snuff, and 
in his left hand a pistol with which he had blown out 
his own brains. In his pockets were found a purse 
and a brandy bottle, both empty. 



3ean H\>moru 

Jean Aymon was born in Dauphine, in 1661, of 
Catholic parents. He studied in the college of 
Grenoble. His family, loving him, neglected nothing 
which might contribute to the improvement of his 
mind, and the professors of Grenoble laboured to 
perfect their intelligent pupil in mathematics, 
languages, and history. 

From Grenoble, Aymon betook himself to Turin, 
where he studied theology and philosophy. But there 
was one thing neither parents nor professors were 
able to implant in the young man — a conscience. 
He was thoroughly well versed in all the intricacies 
of moral theology and the subtleties of the school- 
men ; he regarded crime and sin as something deadly 
indeed, but deadly only to other persons. Theft was 
a mortal sin to every one but himself. Truth was a 
virtue to be strictly inculcated, but not to be prac- 
tised in his own case. 

His parents, thinking he would grow out of this 
obliquity of moral vision, persisted in their scheme of 
education for the lad — probably the very worst which, 
with his peculiar bent of mind, they could have 
chosen for him. Having finished his studies at Turin, 
his evil star led him to Rome, where his talents soon 
drew attention to him, and Hercules de Berzet, Bishop 
of Saint Jean de Maurienne, in Savoy, named him 



130 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

chaplain, and had him ordained, by brief of Inno- 
cent XL, before the age fixed by the Council of 
Trent, " because of the probity of his life, his virtues 
and other merits ! " — such were the reasons. 

Shortly after his installation as chaplain to the 
bishop, his patron entrusted him with a delicate case. 
De Berzet had lately been deep in an intrigue to 
obtain a cardinal's hat. He had been disappointed, 
and he was either bent on revenge, or, perhaps, hoped 
to frighten the Pope into giving him that which he 
had solicited in vain. He set to work, raking up all 
the scandal of the Papal household, and acting the 
spy upon all the movements of the familiars of the 
court. After a very little while, this worthy prelate 
had succeeded in gathering together enough material 
to make all the ears in Europe tingle, and this was 
put into the hands of the young priest to work into 
form for publication. 

As Aymon looked through these scandalous 
memoirs, he made his own reflections. "The publi- 
cation of this will raise a storm, undoubtedly ; but 
the first who will perish in it will be my patron, and 
all who sail in his boat." Aymon noticed that M. de 
Camus, Bishop of Grenoble, was most compromised 
by the papers in his hands, and would be most in- 
terested in their suppression. Aymon, without hesi- 
tation, tied up the bundle, put it in his pocket, and 
presented himself before the bishop, ready to make 
them over to him for a consideration. He was well 
received, as may be supposed, and in return for the 
papers was given a living in the diocese. But this 
did not satisfy the restless spirit of Aymon ; he had 



JEAN A YMON. 131 

imbibed a taste for intrigue, and there was no place 
like the Eternal City for indulging this taste. He 
was, moreover, dissatisfied with his benefice, and 
expected greater rewards for the service he had done 
to the Church. Innocent XI. received him well, and 
in 16S7 appointed him his protonotary. Further he 
did not advance. At the Papal Court he made his 
observations, and whether it was that he was felt to 
be somewhat of a spy, or through some intrigue, his 
star began to set, when Aymon, too well aware that 
a falling man may sink very low, suddenly fled from 
Rome, crossed the border into Switzerland, and in a 
few days was a convert to the straitest sect of the 
Calvinists. But the Swiss are poor, and their minis- 
ters are in comfortable, though not lucrative positions. 
Holland was the paradise of Calvinism, and to Hol- 
land Aymon repaired. Here he obtained a cure of 
importance, and married a lady of rank. 

But even now, Aymon was not satisfied. Among 
the Protestants of the Low Countries there are no 
bishops, and no man can soar higher than the pulpit 
of a parish church. Aymon was convinced that he 
had climbed as high as he could in the Church of 
Calvin, and that he had a soul for something higher 
still. His next step was extraordinary enough. He 
wrote in December, 1705, to M. Clement, of the 
Bibliotheque du Roi, at Paris, stating that he had in 
his possession the " Herbal" of the celebrated Paul 
Hermann, in forty folio volumes, and that he offered 
it to the King for 3200 livres, a trifle over what it had 
cost him. He added that he was a renegade priest, who 
had sought rest in Protestantism, but had found none 



132 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

— nay ! he had discovered it to be a hot-bed of every 
kind of vice, and that he yearned for the Church of 
his baptism. He hinted that he had made some dis- 
coveries of the utmost political importance, and that 
he would communicate them to the King if he could 
be provided with a passport. 

Clement made inquiries of the superintendent of 
the Jardin-Royal as to the expediency of purchasing 
the " Herbal," and received a reply in the negative. 

Aymon wrote again, saying little more of the 
" Herbal," and developing his schemes. He said that 
he had State secrets to confide to the Ministers of the 
Crown, besides which, he volunteered to compose a 
large and important work on the state of Protestant- 
ism, " full of proofs so authentic, and so numerous, 
that, if given to the light of day, as I purpose, it 
would probably not only restrain all those who medi- 
tate seceding from the Roman Church, but also would 
persuade all those, who are not blinded by their 
passions, to return to the Catholic faith." 

Clement, uncertain what to answer, showed these 
letters to some clergy of his acquaintance, and, acting 
on their advice, he presented them to M. de Pont- 
ohartrain, who communicated the proposal of Aymon 
to the King. 

A passport was immediately granted, and Aymon 
left Holland, assuring his congregation that he was 
going for a little while to Constantinople on important 
matters of religion. 

On his arrival in Paris, he presented himself before 
M. Clement, to assure him of the fervour of his zeal 
and the earnestness of his conversion. Clement 



JEAN A YAION. *33 

received him cordially, and took him to Versailles to 
see M. de Pontchartrain. In this interview Aymon 
made great promises of being serviceable to the 
Church and to the State, by the revelations he was 
about to make ; but M. de Pontchartrain treated his 
protestations very lightly, and handed him over to 
the Cardinal de Noailles, Archbishop of Paris. 

The conference with the cardinal was long. The 
archbishop addressed a homily to the repentant 
sinner, who listened with hands crossed on his breast, 
his eyes bent to earth, and his cheeks suffused with 
tears. Aymon sighed forth that he had quitted the 
camp of the Amalekites for ever, and that he was 
determined to turn against them their own weapons. 
Clement, who was present, now stepped forward and 
reminded the prelate that Aymon had abandoned a 
lucrative situation, at the dictates of conscience, and 
that though he might, of course, expect to be re- 
warded hereafter, still that remuneration in this life 
would not interfere with these future prospects. 
The cardinal quite approved of this sentiment, and 
promised to see what he could do for the convert 
In the meantime, he wished Aymon to spend a 
retreat in some religious house, where he could 
meditate on the error of his past life, and expiate, as 
far as in him lay, his late delinquencies by rigorous 
penances. Aymon thanked the cardinal for thus, 
unasked, granting him the request which was upper- 
most in his thoughts, and then begged to be allowed 
the use of the Royal Library, in which to pursue his 
theological researches, and to examine the documents 
which were necessary for the execution of his design 



134 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

of writing a triumphant vindication of the Catholic 
faith, and a complete exposure of the abominations 
of Protestantism. M. Clement readily accorded this, 
at the request of the archbishop, and Jean Aymon 
was sent to the seminary of the Missions Etran- 
geres. 

Aymon now appeared as a model penitent. He 
spent a considerable part of the night in prayer 
before the altar, he was punctual in his attendance on 
all the public exercises of religion, and his conversa- 
tion, morning, noon, and night, was on the errors and 
disorders of the Calvinist Church. When not en- 
gaged in devotions, he was at the library, where he 
was indefatigable in his research among manuscripts 
which could throw light on the subject upon which 
he was engaged. Indeed, his enthusiasm and his 
zeal for discoveries wearied the assistants. Clement 
himself was occupied upon the catalogues, and was 
unable to dance attendance on Aymon ; and the 
assistants soon learned to regard him as a bookworm 
who would keep them on the run, supplying him with 
fresh materials, if they did not leave him to do pretty 
much what he liked. 

Time passed, and Aymon heard no more of the 
reward promised by the cardinal. He began to 
murmur, and to pour his complaints into the reluctant 
ear of Clement, who soon became so tired of hearing 
them, that the appearance of Aymon's discontented 
face in the library was a signal for him to plead 
business and hurry into another apartment. Aymon 
declared that he should most positively publish noth- 
ing till the king or the cardinal made up to him the 



JEAN A YMON. 135 

losses he had endured by resigning his post in 
Holland. 

All of a sudden, to Clement's great relief, Aymon 
disappeared from the library. At first he was satis- 
fied to be freed from him, and made no inquiries ; 
but after a while, hearing that he had also left the 
Missions Etrangeres, he made search for the missing 
man. He was nowhere to be found. 
• About this time Aymon's congregation at the 
Hague were gratified by the return of their pastor, 
not much bronzed by exposure to the sun of Con- 
stantinople, certainly, but with his trunks well-stocked 
with valuable MSS. 

A little while after, M. Clement received the follow- 
ing note from a French agent resident at the 
Hague : — 

" Information is required relative to a certain 
Aymon, who says that he was chaplain to M. le 
Cardinal de Camus, and apostolic protonotary. After 
having lived some while at the Hague, whither he had 
come from Switzerland, where he had embraced the 
so-called Reformed religion, he disappeared, and it 
was ascertained that he was at Paris, whither he had 
taken an Arabic Koran in MS., which he had stolen 
from a bookseller at the Hague. He has only 
lately returned, laden w r ith spoils — thefts, one would 
rather say, which he must have made at Paris, where 
he has been spending five or six months in some 
publicity. . . . He has with him the Acts of the 
last Council *of Jerusalem held by the Greeks on the 
subject of Transubstantiation, and some other docu- 
ments supposed to be stolen from the Bibliotheque 



136 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

du Roi. The man has powerful supporters in this 
country. — March 10, 1707." 

The " Council of Jerusalem " was one of the most 
valuable MSS. of the library — and it was in the 
hands of Aymon ! Clement flew to the cabinet where 
this inestimable treasure was preserved under lock 
and key. The cabinet was safely enough locked — 
but alas ! the MS. was no longer there. 

A few days after, Clement heard that Aymon had 
crossed the frontier with several heavy boxes, which, 
on inquiry, proved to be full of books. What volumes 
were they ? The collections in the Royal Library 
consisted of 12,500 MSS. The whole had to be gone 
through. It was soon ascertained that another miss- 
ing book was the original Italian despatches and 
letters of Carlo Visconti, Apostolic Nuncio at the 
Council of Trent. 

There was no time to be lost. Clement wrote to 
the Hague to claim the stolen volumes, and to insti- 
tute legal proceedings for their recovery, before the 
collection could be dispersed, and he appointed, with 
full powers, William de Voys, bookseller at the 
Hague, to seize the two volumes said to be in the 
possession of Aymon. 

A little while after some more MSS. volumes were 
missed ; they were " The Italian Letters of Prospero 
S. Croce, Nuncio of Pius IV.," " The Embassy of the 
Bishop of Angouleme to Rome in 1 560-4," "Le 
Registre des taxes de la Chancellerie Romaine," 
" Dialogo politico sopra i tumulti di Francia," nine 
Chinese MSS., a copy of the Gospels of high antiquity 
in uncial characters, another copy of the Gospels, no 



JEAN A YMON. 137 

less valuable, and the Epistles of S. Paul, also very 
ancient. 

Shortly after this, two Swiss, passing through the 
Hague, were shown by Aymon some MSS. which 
agreed with those mentioned as lost from the Royal 
Library ; but besides these, they saw numerous loose 
sheets, inscribed with letters of gold, and apparently 
belonging- to a MS. of the Bible. Clement had now 
to go through each MS. in the library and find what 
had been subtracted from them. Fourteen sheets 
were gone from the celebrated Bible of S. Denys. 
From the Pauline Epistles and Apocalypse, a MS. of 
the seventh century, and one of the most valuable 
treasures of the library, thirty-five sheets had been 
cut. There were other losses of less importance. 

Whilst Clement was making these discoveries, De 
Voys brought an action against Aymon for the 
recovery of the " Council of Jerusalem " and the 
" Letters of Visconti." 

Jean Aymon was not, however, a man to be 
despoiled of what he had once got. He knew his 
position perfectly, and he knew the temper of those 
around him. He was well aware that in order to 
gain his cause he had only to excite popular passion. 
His judges were enemies to both France and Catho- 
licism, he had but to make them believe that a plot 
was formed against him by French Papists for ob- 
taining possession of certain MSS. which he had, and 
which contained a harvest of scandals and revelations 
overwhelming to Catholics, and he knew that his 
cause was safe. 

He accordingly published a defence, bearing the 



U38 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

following title : — " Letter of the Sieur Aymon, 
Minister of the Holy Gospel, to M. N., Professor of 
Theology, to inform people of honour and savants of 
the extraordinary frauds of certain Papistical doctors, 
and of the vast efforts they are now making, along 
with some perverted Protestants, who are striving 
together to ruin, by their impostures, the Sieur 
Aymon, and to deprive him of several MSS., &c." — 
La Haye, dated 1707. Aymon in his pamphlet took 
high moral ground. He was not pleading his own 
•cause. Persecuted, hunted down by Papists, by 
■enemies of the Republic and of the religion of 
Christ, he scorned their calumnies and despised their 
rage. He would bow under the storm, he would endure 
the persecution cheerfully — for "Blessed are those that 
are persecuted for righteousness' sake ; " but higher 
interests were at stake than his own fair fame. For 
himself he cared little ; for the Protestant faith he 
cared everything. If the Papists obtained their suit, 
they would wrest from his grasp documents most 
compromising to themselves. They would leave no 
stone unturned to secure them — they dare not leave 
them in the hands of a Protestant pastor. Their 
story of the " Acts of the Council of Jerusalem " was 
false. They said that it had been obtained by Olier 
de Nanteuil, Ambassador of France at Constantinople, 
in 1672, and had been transmitted to Paris, where 
Arnauld had seen and made use of it in preparing his 
great work on the " Perpetuity of the Faith." They 
further said that the Bibliotheque clu Roi had obtained 
it in 1696. On the other hand, Aymon asserted that 
Arnauld had falsified the text in his treatise on the 



JEAN A YMON. 139 

<( Perpetuity of the Faith," and that, not daring to let 
his fraud appear, he had never given the MS. to the 
Royal Library, but had committed it to a Benedictine 
monk of S. Maur, who had assisted him in falsifying 
it and making an incorrect translation. This monk 
would never have surrendered the MS. but that con- 
science had given him no rest till he had transmitted 
it to one who would know how to use it aright. He, 
Aymon, had solemnly promised never to divulge the 
name of this monk, and even though he and the Pro- 
testant cause were to suffer for it, that promise 
should be held sacred. He challenged the library of 
the King to prove its claim to the " Council of Jerusa- 
lem !" All books in the Bibliotheque du Roi have 
the seal of the library on them. This volume had 
three seals — that of the Sultan, that of the Patriarch 
of Jerusalem, and that of Olier de Nanteuil ; but he 
defied any one to see the library mark on its cover, 
or on any of its sheets. Aymon wound up his 
audacious pamphlet by prophesying that the Papists 
of France would not be satisfied with this claim, but 
would advance many others, for they knew that in his 
hands were documents of the utmost importance to 
them to conceal. Aymon was too clever for Clement: 
he had mixed up truth with fiction in such a way that 
the points which Clement had to admit tended to 
make even those who were not bigoted hesitate about 
condemning Aymon. 

Clement replied to this letter by stating the whole 
story of Aymon's deception of the Cardinal de Noailles 
and others. With regard to the " Council of Jerusa- 
lem," it was false that it had ever been in a Benedictine 



i 4 o HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

monastery. " It is true," he said, " that in the 
Monastery of S. Germain-des-Pres there are documents 
relating to the controversies between the Catholics and 
Greek schismatics, but they are all in French." He 
produced an attestation, signed by the prior, to the 
effect that the MS. in question had never been within 
the walls of his monastery. Clement was obliged to 
allow that a Benedictine monk had been employed by 
Arnauld to translate the text of the Council; he even 
found him out, his name was Michel Foucquere ; he 
was still alive, and the librarian made him affirm in 
writing that he had restored the volume, on the com- 
pletion of his translation, to Dom Luc d'Achery. 
Clement sent a copy of the register in the library, 
which related how and when the volume had come 
into the possession of the King. It was true that it 
bore no library seal, but that was through an over- 
sight. 

Aymon wrote a second pamphlet, exposing Cle- 
ment more completely, pointing out the concessions 
he was obliged to make, and finally, in indignant 
terms, hurling back on him the base assertion made 
to injure him in the eyes of an enlightened Protestant 
public, that he had ever treated with the government 
or clergy of Paris relative to a secession to the ranks 
of Popery. But that he had been to Paris ; that he 
had met the Cardinal Archbishop, he admitted ; but 
on what ground ? He had met him and twenty-four 
prelates besides, gathered in solemn conclave, and had 
lifted up his voice in testimony against them ; had 
disputed with them, and, with the Word of God in his 
mouth, had put them all to silence ! No idea of his 



JEAN A YMON. 141 

ever leaving the reformed faith had ever entered his 
head. No ! he had been on a mission to the Papists 
of France, to open their eyes and to convert them. 

The news of the robbery had, however, reached the 
ears of the King, Louis XIV., and he instructed M. 
de Torcy to demand on the part of Government the 
restitution of the stolen MSS. M. de Torcy first 
wrote to a M. Hennequin at Rotterdam, who replied 
that Aymon had justified himself before the Council 
of State from the imputations cast upon him. He 
had been interrogated, not upon the theft committed 
in Paris, but on his journey to France. Aymon had 
proved that this expedition had been undertaken with 
excellent intentions, and had been attended with 
supreme success, since he had returned laden with 
manuscripts the publication of which would cause the 
greatest confusion in the Catholic camp. Hennequin 
added, that after having been deprived of his stipend, 
as suspected, on it having been ascertained that he 
had visited Paris instead of Constantinople, Aymon, 
having cleared his character, had recovered it. Such 
was the first result of the intervention of Louis XIV. 
in this affair. 

"The stamp of the Royal Library is on all the 
MSS., except the ' Council of Jerusalem,' " said 
Clement. " Let the judges insist on examining the 
books in the possession of Aymon, and all doubt as 
to the theft will be removed." 

But this the judges refused to do. 

It was pretended that Aymon was persecuted ; it 
was the duty of the Netherland Government to pro- 
tect a subject from persecution. He had made dis- 



142 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

coveries, and the Catholics dreaded the publication 
of his discoveries, therefore a deep plot had been laid 
to ruin him. 

Aymon had now formed around him a powerful 
party, and the Calvinist preachers took his side 
unanimously. It was enough to read the titles of the 
books stolen to be certain that they contained curious, 
details on the affairs which agitated Catholics and 
Protestants from the sixteenth century. 

All that the Dutch authorities cared for now was 
to find some excuse for retaining these important 
papers, and the inquiry was mainly directed to the 
proceedings of Aymon in France. If, as it was. 
said, he had gone thither to abjure Calvinism and 
betray his brethren, he deserved reprimand, but if, 
on the other hand, he had penetrated the camp of the 
enemy to defy it, and to witness a good confession in 
the heart of the foe, he deserved a crown. Clement, 
to display Aymon in his true colours, acting on the 
advice of the Minister, sent copies of Aymon's letters. 
It was not thought that the good faith of the French 
administration would be doubted. Aymon swore 
that the letters were not his own, but that they had 
been fabricated by the Government ; and he offered 
to stake his head on the truth of what he said. At 
the same time he dared De Torcy to produce the 
originals. 

He had guessed aright : he knew exactly how far 
he could go. The Dutch court actually questioned 
the good faith of these copies, and demanded the 
originals. This, as Aymon had expected, was taken 
by De Torcy as an insult, and all further communi- 



JEAN A YMON. 143, 

cation on the subject was abruptly stopped. It was 
a clever move of Aymon. He inverted by one bold 
stroke the relative positions of himself and his accuser : 
the judges at the Hague required M. de Torcy to re- 
establish his own honour before proceeding with the 
question of Aymon's culpability. In short, they sup- 
posed that one of the Ministers of the Crown, for the 
sake of ruining a Protestant refugee, had deliberately 
committed forgery. 

The matter was dropped. After a while Aymon 
published translations of some of the MSS. in his 
possession, and those who had expected great results 
were disappointed. (Th the meantime poor Clement 
died, heart-broken at the losses of the library com- 
mitted to his care. 

At last the Dutch Government, after the publica- 
tion of Aymon's book, and after renewed negotiation, 
restored the " Council of Jerusalem " to the Biblio- 
theque du Roi. It still bears traces of the mutilations 
and additions of Aymon. 

In 1 7 10, the imposter published the letters of 
Prospero S. Croce, which he said he had copied in the 
Vatican, but which he had in fact stolen from the 
Royal Library. In 17 16 he published other stolen 
papers. Clement was succeeded by the Abbe de 
Targny, who made vain attempts to recover the lost 
treasures. The Abbe Bignon succeeded De Targny, 
and he discovered fresh losses. Aymon had stolen 
Arabic books as well as Greek and Italian MSS. 
There was no chance of recovering the lost works 
through the courts of law, and Bignon contented him- 
self with writing to Holland, England, and Germany 



144 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

to inquire whether any of the MSS. had been bought 
there. 

The Baron von Stocks wrote to say that he had 
purchased some leaves of the Epistles of S. Paul, 
some pages of the S. Denis Bible, and an Arabic 
volume from Aymon for a hundred florins, and that 
he would return them to the library for that sum. 
They were recovered in March, 1720. 

About the same time Mr. Bentley, librarian to the 
King of England, announced that some more of the 
pages from the Epistles of S. Paul were in Lord 
Harley's library ; and that the Duke of Sunderland 
had purchased various MSS. at the Hague from 
Aymon. In giving this information to the Abbe" 
Bignon, Mr. Bentley entreated him not to mention 
the source of his information. M. de Boze thereupon 
resolved to visit England and endeavour to recover 
the MSS. But he was detained by various causes. 

In 1729, Earl Middleton offered, on the part of 
Lord Harley, to return the thirty-four leaves of the 
Epistles in his possession, asking only in return an 
acknowledgment sealed with the grand seal. Car- 
dinal Fleury, finding that the Royal signature could 
hardly be employed for such a purpose, wrote in the 
King's name a letter to the Earl of Oxford of a flat- 
tering nature, and the lost MSS. were restored in 
September, 1729. 

Those in the Sunderland collection have not, I be- 
lieve, been returned. 

/And what became of Aymon? In 17 18 he in- 
habited the Chateau of Riswyck. Thence he sent to 
the brothers Wetstein, publishers at Amsterdam, the 



JEAN A YMON. 145 

proofs of his edition of the letters of Visconti. It 
appeared in T719 in two i2mo volumes, under the 
title " Lettres, Anecdotes, et Memoires historiques du 
nonce Visconti, Cardinel Preconise et Ministre Secret 
de Pie IV. et de ses creatures." The date of his death 
is not known. 

Authority: Haureau, J. Singularities Historiques et Literaires. 
Paris, 1881. 



Zbc patarines of flIMIam 

i. 

ttN the eleventh century, nearly all the clergy in the 
north of Italy were married. 1 It was the same in 
Sicily, and it had been the same in Rome, 2 but there 
the authority and presence of the Popes had sufficed 
to convert open marriage into secret concubinage. 

But concubinage did not in those times mean 
exactly what it means now. A conatbina was an uxor 
in an inferior degree"; the woman was married in both 
cases with the ring and religious rite, but the children 
of the concubine could not inherit legally the posses- 
sions of their father. When priests were without 
wives, concubines were tolerated wives without the 
legal status of wives, lest on the death of the priest 
his children should claim and alienate to their own 
use property belonging to the Church. In noble and 
royal families it was sometimes the same, lest estates 
should be dismembered. On the death of a wife, her 

1 " Cuncti fere cum publicis uxoribus .... ducebant vitam." 
" Et ipsi, ut ccrnitur, sicut laid, palam uxores ducunt."— Andr. 
Strum. " Vit. Arialdi." " Quis clericorum non esset uxoratus 
vel concubinarius ?— Andr. Strum. " Vit. S.Joan. Gualberti." 

2 " Cceperunt ipsi presbyteri et diacones laicorum more uxores 
ducere suscepsosque filios hasredes relinquere. Nonnulli etiam 
episcoporum verecundia omni contempts, cum uxoribus domo 
simul in una habitare."— Victor Papa " in Dialog. " 

146 



THE PA TARINES OF MILAN. 147 

place was occupied by a concubine, and the sons of 
the latter could not dispute inheritance with the sons 
of the former. Nor did the Church look sternly on 
the concubine. In the first Toledian Council a canon 
was passed with regard to communicating those who 
had one wife or one concubine ; — such were not to be 
excluded from the Lord's Table, 1 so long only as each 
man had but one wife or concubine, and the union 
was perpetual. 

(But, though concubinage was universal among the 
clergy in Italy, at Milan the priests openly, boldly 
claimed for their wives a position as honourable as 
could be accorded them ; and they asserted without 
fear of contradiction that their privilege had received 
the sanction of the great Ambrose himself. Married 
bishops had been common, and saintly married pre- 
lates not unknown. St. Severus of Ravenna had a 
wife and daughter, and though the late biographer 
asserts that he lived with his wife as with a sister after 
he became a bishop, this statement is probably made 
to get over an awkward fact. 2 When he was about to 

1 " Qui unius mulieris, aut uxoris, aut concubine (ut ei plac- 
uerit) sit conjunctione contentus." — 1st Cone, of Toledo, can. 17. 
" Hae quippe, licet nee uxoribus, nee Reginarum decore et 
privilegiis gaudebant, erant tamen verae uxores," say the Bol- 
landist Fathers, and add, that it is a vulgar error " Concubinas 
appellationem solis iis tribuere. quae corporis sui usum uni viro 
commodant, nullo interim legitimo nexu devinctae." — Acta SS., 
Jun. T. L. p. 178. 

2 It is the same with St. Gregory, Nyssen, Baronius, Alban, 
Butler, and other modern Hagiographers make this assertion 
boldly, but there is not a shadow of evidence, in any ancient 
authorities for his life, that this was the case. 



148 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

die, he went to the tomb where his wife and daughter 
lay, and had the stone removed. Then he addressed 
them thus — " My dear ones, with whom I lived so 
long in love, make room for me, for this is my grave, 
and in death we shall not be divided." Thereupon 
he descended into the grave, laid himself between his 
wife and daughter, and died. St. Heribert, Arch- 
bishop of Milan, had been a married man with a wife 
esteemed for her virtues. 1 

By all accounts, friendly and hostile, the Lombard 
priests were married openly, legally, with religious 
rite, exchange of ring, and notarial deed. There was 
no shame felt, no supposition entertained that such 
was an offence. 2 

How was this inveterate custom to be broken 
through? How the open, honest marriage to be per- 
verted into clandestine union ? For to abolish it 
wholly was beyond the power of the Popes and 
Councils. It was in vain to appeal to the bishops, 
they sympathised with their clergy. It was in vain 
to invoke the secular arm ; the emperors, the 
podestas, supported the parish-priests in their con- 
tumacious adherence to immemorial privilege. 

1 " Hie Archiepiscopus habuit uxorem nobilem mulierem ; 
qu35 donavit dotem suam monasterii S. Dionysii, quae usque 
hodie Uxoria dicitur." — Calvaneus Fiamma, sub a7in. 1040. 

2 " Nee vos terreat," writes St. Peter Damianl to the wives of 
the clergy "quod forte, non dicam fidei, sed perfidias vos 
annulus subarrhavit ; quod rata et monimenta dotalia notarius 
quasi matrimonii jure conscripserit : quod juramentum ad 
confirmandam quodammodo conjugii copulam utrinqueprocessit. 
Ignorantes quia pro uniuscujusque fugaci voluptate concubitus 
mile annorum nes^otiantur incendium.' 



THE PATARINES OF MILAN. 149 

To carry through the reform on which they were 
bent, to utterly abolish the marriage of the clergy, 
the appeal must be made to the people. 

In Milan this was practicable, for the laity, at least 
the lower rabble, were deeply tinged with Patarinism, 
and bore a grudge against the clergy, who had been 
foremost in bringing the luckless heretics to the rack 
and the flames ; and one of the most cherished doc- 
trines of the Patarines was the unlawfulness of marriage. 
What if this anti-connubial prejudice could be enlisted 
by the strict reformers of the Church, and turned to 
expend its fury on the clergy who refused to listen to 
the expostulations of the Holy Father? 

The Patarines, whom the Popes were about to 
enlist in their cause against the Ambrosian clergy, 
already swarmed in Italy. Of their origin and tenets 
we must say a word. 

(It is a curious fact that, instead of Paganism affect- 
ing Christianity in the earliest ages of the Church, it 
was Christianity which affected Paganism, and that 
not the Greek and Roman idolatry, which was rotten 
through and through, but the far subtler and more 
mystical heathenism of Syria, Egypt, Persia, and 
Mesopotamia. The numerous Gnostic sects, so called 
from their claim to be the possessors of the true 
gnosis, or knowledge of wisdom, were not, save in the 
rarest cases, of Christian origin. They were Pagan 
philosophical schools which had adopted and incor- 
porated various Christian ideas. They worked up 
Biblical names and notions into the strange new 
creeds they devised, and, according as they blended 
more or less of Christian teaching with their own, 



ISO HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

they drew to themselves disciples of various tempers. 
(Manes, who ^flourished in the middle of the third 
century, a temporary and nominal convert to the 
Gospel, blended some of these elder Gnostic systems 
with the Persian doctrines of Zoroaster, added to a 
somewhat larger element of Christianity than his pre- 
decessors had chosen to adopt. His doctrines spread 
and gained an extensive and lasting hold on the 
minds of men, suppressed repeatedly, but never dis- 
appearing wholly, adopting fresh names, emerging in 
new countries, exhibiting an irrepressible vitality, 
which confounded the Popes and Churchmen from the 
third to the tenth centuries. 

\The tradition of Western Manicheism breaks off 
about the sixth century ; but in the East, under the 
name of Paulicians, the adherents of Manichean doc- 
trines endured savage persecutions during two whole 
centuries, and spread, as they fled from the sword 
and stake in the East, over Europe, entering it in two 
streams — one by Bulgaria, Servia, and Croatia, to 
break out in the wild fanaticism of the Taborites 
under Zisca of the Flail ; the other, by way of the sea, 
inundating northern Italy and Provence. In Piedmont 
it obtained the name of Patarinism ; in Provence, of 
Albigensianism. 

V With Oriental Manicheism, the Patarines and 
Albigenses of the West held that there were two co- 
equal conflicting principles of good and evil ; that 
matter was eternal, and waged everlasting war against 
spirit. Their moral life was strict and severe. They 
fasted, dressed in coarse clothing, and hardly, reluc- 
tantly suffered marriage to the weaker, inferior dis- 



THE PATARINES OF MILAN. 151 

ciples. It was absolutely forbidden to those who 
were, or esteemed themselves to be, perfect. 

( Already, in Milan, St. Heribert, the married arch- 
bishop, had kindled fires, and cast these denouncers 
of wedlock into them. In 103 1 the heretics held the 
castle of Montforte, in the diocese of Asti. They were 
questioned : they declared themselves ready to witness 
to their faith by their blood. They esteemed virginity, 
and lived in chastity with their wives, never touched 
meat, and prayed incessantly. They had their goods 
in common. Their castle stood a siege. It was at 
length captured by the Archbishop. In the market- 
place were raised a cross on one side, a blazing pyre 
on the other. The Patarines were brought forth, 
commanded to cast themselves before the cross, con- 
fess themselves to be heretics, or plunge into the 
flames. A few knelt to the cross ; the greater number 
covered their faces, rushed into the fire, and were con- 
sumed. 1 

\ St. Augustine, in his book on Heresies, had already 
described these heretics. He, who had been involved 
in the fascinating wiles of Manicheism, could not be 
ignorant of them. He calls them Paternians, or 
Venustians, and says that they regarded the flesh as 
the work of the devil — that is, of the evil principle, 
because made of matter. 

In the eleventh century, in Lombardy, they are 
called Patarines, Patrins, or Cathari. Muratori says 
that they derived their name from the part of the 
town of Milan in which they swarmed, near the Con- 

1 Landulf Sen. ii. c. 27. 



iS2 • HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

trada di Patari ; but it is more probable that the quarter 
was called after them. 

1 In 1074 Gregory VII. in solemn conclave will bless 
them altogether, by name, as the champions of the 
Holy See, and of the Truth; in n 79 Alexander III. 
will anathematise them altogether, as heretics meet to 
be burned. Frederick II., when seeking reconcilia- 
tion with Honorius III. and Gregory IX., will be 
never weary of offering hecatombs of Patarines, in 
token of his orthodoxy. 

I Ariald, a native of Cuzago, a village near Milan, of 
ignoble birth, in deacon's orders, was chosen for the 
dangerous expedient of enlisting the Patarine heretics 
against the orthodox but relaxed clergy of that city. 
Milan, said a proverb, was famous for it clergy ; 
Ravenna for its churches. In morals, in learning, 
in exact observance of their religious duties, the 
clergy of Milan were prominent among the priests of 
Lombardy. But they were all married. The Popes 
could expect no support from the Archbishop, Guido 
Vavasour ; none from the Emperor Henry IV., then 
a child. Ariald was a woman-hater from infancy, 
deeply tinged with Patarinism. We are told that 
even as a little boy the sight of his sisters was odious 
to him. 1 He began to preach in Milan in 1057, and 

1 For authorities we have Andrew of Vallombrosa, d. a.d. 
1 170, a disciple of Ariald. He was a native of Parma. He 
afterwards went to Florence, where he was mixed up with the 
riots occasioned by St. John Gualberto in 1063. He joined the 
Order of Vallombrosa, and became Abbot of Strumi. At least, 
1 judge, and so do the Bollandists, that Andrew of Vallombrosa 
and Andrew of Strumi are the same. 



THE PATARINES OF MILAN. 153 

the populace was at once set on fire x by his sermons. 
They applauded vociferously his declaration that the 
married clergy were no longer to be treated as priests, 
but as " the enemies of God, and the deceivers of 
souls." 

Then up rose from among the mob a clerk named 
Landulf, a man of loud voice and vehement gesture, 
and offered to join Ariald in his crusade. The crowd, 
or, at least, a part of it, enthusiastically cheered ; 
another part of the audience, disapproving, deeming 
it an explosion of long-suppressed Manicheism, which 
would meet with stern repression, thought it prudent 
to withdraw. 

A layman of fortune, named Nazarius, offered his 
substance to advance the cause, and his house as a 
harbour for its apostles. 

\ The sermon was followed by a tumult. The whole 
city was in an uproar, and the married clergy were 
threatened or maltreated by the mob. Guido Vava- 
sour de Velati, the Archbishop, was obliged to inter- 
fere. He summoned Ariald and Landulf before him, 
and remonstrated. " It is unseemly for a priest to 
denounce priests. It is impolitic for him to stir up 
tumult against his brethren. Let not brothers con- 
demn brothers, for whose salvation Christ died." 
Then turning to Landulf, " Why do not you return to 
your own wife and children whom you have deserted, 
and live with them as heretofore, and set an example 
of peace and order ? Cast the beam out of thine 
own eye, before thou pluckest motes out of the eyes 
of thy brethren. If they have done wrong, reprove 

1 " Plebs fere universa sic est accensa." 



154 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

them privately, but do not storm against them before 
all the people." He concluded by affirming the law- 
fulness of priests marrying, and insisted on the cessa- 
tion of the contest. 1 Ariald obstinately refused to 
desist. " Private expostulation is in vain. As for 
obstinate disorders you apply fire and steel, so for 
this abuse we must have recourse to desperate 
remedies." 

He left the Archbishop to renew his appeals to the 
people. But dreading lest Guido should use force to 
restrain him, Ariald invoked the support of Anselm 
de Badagio, Bishop of Lucca, and received promise of 
his countenance and advocacy at Rome. 

Guido Vavasour had succeeded the married Arch- 
bishop Heribert in 1040. His election had not 
satisfied the people, who had chosen, and proposed 
for consecration, four priests, one of whom the nobles 
were expected to select. But the nobles rejected the 
popular candidates, and set up in their place Guido 
Vavasour, and his nomination was ratified by the 
Emperor and by the Pope. He was afterwards, as 
we shall see, charged with having bribed Henry III. 
to give him the See, but was acquitted of the charge, 
which was denounced as unfounded by Leo IX. in 
1059. The people, in token of their resentment, 
refused to be present at the first mass he sang. " He 
is a country bumpkin," said they. " Faugh ! he 
smells of the cow-house." 2 Consequently there was 

1 " Hasc cum Guido placide dixisset ; eo finem orationis 
dixerit, ut sacerdotibus fas esset dicere uxores ducere." — Alica- 
tus, " Vit. Arialdi? 

2 Arnulf., Gesta Archiepisc. Mediol. ap. Pertz, x. p. 17. 



THE PATARINES OF MILAN. 155 

simmering discontent against the Archbishop for 
Ariald to work upon ; he could unite the lower 
people, whose wishes had been disregarded by the 
nobles, with the Patarines, who had been haled before 
ecclesiastical courts for their heresy, in one common 
insurrection against the clergy and the pontiff. 

According to Landulf the elder, a strong partisan 
of the Archbishop, another element of discontent was 
united to those above enumerated. The clergy of 
Milan had oppressed the country people. The 
Church had estates outside of Milan, vine and olive 
yards and corn-fields. The clergy had been harsh in 
exacting feudal rights and legal dues. 

Ariald, as a native of a country village, knew the 
temper of the peasants, and their readiness to resent 
these extortions. Ariald worked upon the country- 
folk; Landulf, rich and noble, and eloquent in speech, 
on the town rabble; and the two mobs united against 
the common enemy. 

Anselm de Badagio, priest and popular preacher at 
Milan, had been mixed up with Landulf and Ariald 
in the controversy relative to clerical marriage ; but 
to stop his mouth the Archbishop had given him the 
bishopric of Lucca, in 1057, an< ^ na ^ supplied his 
place as preacher at Milan by seven deacons. Lan- 
dulf the elder relates that these deacons preached 
with such success that Anselm, in a fit of jealousy, 
returned to Milan to listen to their sermons, and 
scornfully exclaimed, " They may become preachers, 
but they must first put away their wives." 

According to the same authority, Ariald bore a 
grudge against the Archbishop for having had occa- 



155 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

sion to rebuke him on account of some irregularity of 
which he had been guilty. But Landulf the elder is 
not to be trusted implicitly ; he is as bigoted on one 
side as is Andrew of Strumi on the other. 
^In the meantime the priests and their wives were 
exposed to every sort of violence, and "a great horror 
fell on the Ambrosian clergy." The poor women 
were torn from their husbands, and driven from the 
city ; the priests who refused to be separated from 
their companions were interdicted from the altar. 1 

Landulf was sent to Rome to report progress, and 
obtain confirmation of the proceedings of the party 
from the Pope. He reached Piacenza, but was unable 
to proceed farther ; he was knocked down, and find- 
ing the way barred by the enemies of his party, 
returned to Milan. Ariald then started, and eluding 
his adversaries, arrived safely at Rome. He presented 
himself before Pope Stephen X., who was under the 
influence of Hildebrand, and, therefore, disposed to 
receive him with favour. Stephen bade him return 
to Milan, prosecute the holy war, and, if need be,, 
shed his blood in the sacred cause. 

The appeal to Rome was necessary, as the Arch- 
bishop and a large party of the citizens, together with 
all the clergy, had denounced Ariald and Landulf as 
Patarines. The fact was notorious that the secret and 
suspected Manichees in Milan were now holding up 
their heads and defying those who had hitherto, 
controlled them. The Manichees suddenly found that 

1 " Sic ab eodem populo sunt persecuta et deleta (clericorum 
connubia) ut nullus existeret quin aut cogeretur tantum nefas 
dimittere, vel ad altare non accedere." — Andr. Strum. 



THE PATARINES OF MILAN. 157 

from proscribed heretics they had been exalted into 
champions of orthodoxy. It was a satisfactory 
change for those who had been persecuted to become 
persecutors, and turn their former tyrants into victims. 
But now, to the confusion and dismay of the clergy, 
they found themselves betrayed by the Pope, and at 
the mercy of those who had old wrongs to resent. 
Fortified with the blessing of the Pope on his work, 
his orthodoxy triumphantly established by the 
supreme authority, Ariald rushed back to Milan, 
accompanied by papal legates to protect him, and 
proclaim his mission as divine. He was unmeasured in 
his denunciations. Dissension fast ripened into civil 
war. Ariald, at the head of a roaring mob, swept the 
clergy together into a church, and producing a paper 
which bound all of them by oath to put away their 
wives, endeavoured to enforce their subscription. 

A priest, maddened to resentment, struck the dema- 
gogue in the mouth. This was the signal for a gene- 
ral tumult. The adherents of Ariald rushed through 
the streets, the alarm bells pealed, the populace 
gathered from all quarters, and a general hunting 
down of the married clergy ensued. 

^" How can the blind lead the blind ? " preached 
Landulf Cotta, " Let these Simoniacs, these Nicolai- 
tans be despised. You who wish to have salvation 
from the Lord, drive them from their functions ; es- 
teem their sacrifices as dogs' dung (canina stercora) ! 
Confiscate their goods, and every one of you take 
what he likes ! " x We can imagine the results of such 

. x Arnulf., Gesta Ep. Mediol. ap. Pertz, x. p. 18. It is neces- 
sary not to confound Landulf Cotta, the demagogue, with Lan- 



153 . HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

license given to the lowest rabble. The nobles, over- 
awed, dared not interfere. 

Nor were the clergy of the city alone exposed to 
this popular persecution. The preachers roved round 
the country, creating riots everywhere. This led to 
retaliation, but retaliation of a feeble, harmless sort. 
A chapel built by Ariald on his paternal estate was 
pulled down ; and the married clergy resentfully 
talked of barking his chestnut trees and breaking 
down his vines, but thought better of it, and refrained. 

A more serious attempt at revenge was the act of a 
private individual. Landulf Cotta was praying in a 
church, when a priest aimed at him with a sword, but 
without seriously hurting him. A cripple at the church 
door caught the flying would-be assassin; a crowd as- 
sembled, and Landulf with difficulty extricated the 
priest alive from their hands. 

Ariald and Cotta now began to denounce those 
who had bought their cures of souls, or had paid fees 
on their institution to them. They stimulated the 
people to put down simony, as they had put down 
concubinage. " Cursed is he that withholdeth his 
hand from blood ! " was the fiery peroration of a ser- 
mon on this subject by Ariald. 

" Landulf Cotta," says Arnulf, " being master of the 
lay folk, made them swear to combat both simony 
and concubinage. Presently he forced this oath on 
the clergy. From this time forward he was constantly 
followed by a crowd of men and women, who watched 
around him night and day. He despised the churches, 

dulf the elder, the historian, and Landulf the younger, the dis- 
ciple and biographer of Ariald. 



THE PATARINES OF MILAN. 159 

and rejected priests as well as their functions, under 
pretext that they were defiled with simony. They 
were called Patari, that is to say, beggars, because the 
greater part of them belonged to the lowest orders." 1 

" What shall we do ?" asked a large party at Milan. 
" This Ariald tells us that if we receive the Holy 
Sacrament from married or simoniacal priests, we eat 
our own damnation. We cannot live without sacra- 
ments, and he has driven all the priests out of Milan." 

The parties were so divided, that those who held 
with Ariald would not receive sacraments from the 
priests, the heavenly gift on their altars they esteemed 
as " dogs' dung ; " they would not even join with them, 
or those who adhered to them, in prayer. " One 
house was all faithful," says Andrew of Strumi; "the 
next all unfaithful. In the third, the mother and one 
son were believing, but the father and the other son 
were unbelieving ; so that the whole city was a scene 
of confusion and contention." 

In 1058 Guido assembled a synod at Fontanetum 
near Novara, and summoned Ariald and Landulf 
Cotta to attend it. The synod awaited their arrival 
for three days, and as they did not come, excommuni- 
cated them as contumacious. 

Landulf the younger, the biographer of Ariald, says 
that Pope Stephen X. reversed the sentence of the 
synod ; but this account does not agree with what is 
related by Arnulf. Landulf the elder confounds the 
dates, and places the synod in the reign of Alexander 
1 1., and says that the Pope adopted a middle course, and 

1 Ap. Pertz, I.e., pp. 19, 20. 



160 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

sent ambassadors to Milan to investigate the matter. 
Bonizo of Sutri says the same. All agree that Hilde- 
brand was one of these commissioners. Hildebrand 
was therefore able to judge on the spot of the results 
of an appeal to the passions of the people. It is the 
severest condemnation to his conduct in 1073, to 
know for certain that he had seen the working of the 
power he afterwards called out. He then saw how 
great was that power ; he must have been cruelly, 
recklessly, wickedly indifferent to the crimes which 
accompanied its invocation. Landulf the elder says 
that the second commissary was Anselm of Lucca, 
whilst Bonizo speaks indifferently of the " bishops a 
.latere" as constituting the deputation. Guido was 
not in Milan when it arrived, he did not dare to ven- 
ture his person in the midst of the people. The am- 
bassadors were received with the utmost respect ; 
they took on themselves to brand the Archbishop as 
a simoniac and a schismatic, and, according to Lan- 
dulf, to do many other things which they were not 
authorised by the Pope to do ; so that the dissension, 
so far from being allayed by their visit, only waxed 
more furious. 

At the end of the year 1058, or the beginning of 
1059, the Pope sent Peter Damiani, the harsh Bishop 
of Ostia, and Anselm, Bishop of Lucca, on a new em- 
bassy to Milan 1 They were received with respect by 
the Archbishop and clergy ; but the pride of the 

1 We have a full account of this embassy in a letter of St. 
Peter Damiani to the Archdeacon Hildebrand (Petri Dam. Opp. 
iii ; Opusc. v. p. 37), besides the accounts by Bonizo, Arnulf, 
and Landulf the elder. 



THE PATARINES OF MILAN. i6r 

Milanese of all ranks was wounded by seeing the 
Bishop of Ostia enthroned in the middle, with An- 
selm of Lucca, the suffragan of Milan, upon his right, 
and their Archbishop degraded to the left of the 
Legate, and seated on a stool at his feet. (JMilan as- 
sembled at the ringing of the bells in all the 
churches, and the summons of an enormous brazen 
trumpet which shrieked through the streets. The 
fickle people asked if the Church of St. Ambrose was 
to be trodden under the foot of the Roman Pontiff, 
"rl was threatened with death," wrote Peter Damiani 
to Hildebrand, " and many assured me that there 
were persons panting for my blood. It is not neces- 
sary for me to repeat all the remarks the people made 
on this occasion." 

! But Peter Damiani was not the man to be daunted 
at a popular outbreak. He placidly mounted the 
ambone, and asserted boldly the supreme jurisdiction 
of the chair of St. Peter. " The Roman Church is 
the mother, that of Ambrose is the daughter. St. 
Ambrose always recognised that mistress. Study the 
sacred books, and hold us as liars, if you do not find 
that it is as I have said." 

VThen the charges against the clergy were investi- 
gated by the legates, and not a single clerk in Milan 
was found who had not paid a fee on bis ordination ; 
" for that was the custom, and the charge was fixed," 
says the Bishop of Ostia. Here was a difficulty 
He could not deprive every priest and deacon in 
Milan, and leave the great city without pastors. He 
was therefore obliged to content his zeal with exacting 
from the bishops a promise that ordination in future 

L 



i62 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

should be made gratuitously ; and the Archbishop 
was constrained to deposit on the altar a paper in 
which he pronounced his own excommunication, in 
the event of his relaxing his rigour in suppressing the 
heresy of the Simoniacs and Nicolaitans, by which 
latter name those who insisted on the lawfulness of 
clerical marriage were described. 

V To make atonement for the past, the Archbishop 
was required to do penance for one hundred years, 
but to pay money into the papal treasury in acquittal 
of each year ; which, to our simple understanding, 
looks almost as scandalous a traffic as imposing a fee 
on all clergy ordained. But then, in the one case the 
money went into the pocket of the bishops, and in the 
other into that of the Pope. 

£ The clergy who had paid a certain sum were to be 
put to penance for five years ; those who had paid 
more, for ten (also to be compensated by a payment 
to Rome !), and to make pilgrimages to Rome or 
Tours. After having accomplished this penance 
they were to receive again the insignia of their 
offices. 

Then Peter Damiani re-imposed on the clergy the 
oaths forced on them by Ariald, and departed. 

VThe Milanese contemporary historian, Arnulf, ex- 
claims, "Who has bewitched you, ye foolish Milanese? 
Yesterday you made loud outcries for the priority of 
a see, and now you trouble the whole organisation of 
the Church. You are gnats swallowing camels. You 
say, perhaps, Rome must be honoured because of the 
Apostle. Well, but the memory of St. Ambrose 
should deliver Milan from such an affront as has been 



THE PA TARINES OF MILAN. 163 

Inflicted on her. In future it will be said that Milan 
is subject to Rome " 1 

, Guido attended a council held in Rome (April 1059), 
shortly after this visitation. Ariald also was present, 
to accuse the Archbishop of favouring simony and 
concubinage. The legates had dealt too leniently 
with the scandal. Guido was defended by his suffra- 
gans of Asti, Novara, Turin, Vercelli, Alba, Lodi, and 
Brescia. " Mad bulls, they," says Bonizo ; and Ariald 
was forced to retire, covered with confusion. The 
Council pronounced a decree that no mercy should 
be shown to the simoniacal and married clergy. 2 An 
encyclical was addressed by Nicholas II. to all Chris- 
tendom, informing it that the Council had passed 
thirteen canons, one of which prevented a layman 
from assisting at a mass said by a priest who had a 
concubine or a subintroducta mulier. Priests, deacons, 
and sub-deacons who should take " publicly " a con- 
cubine, or not send away those with whom they lived, 
were to be inhibited from exercising all ministerial 
acts and receiving ecclesiastical dues. 
\ On the return of the bishops to their sees, one only 
of them, Adelmann of Brescia, ventured to publish 
these decrees. He was nearly torn to pieces by his 
clergy ; an act of violence which greatly furthered the 
cause of the Patarines. 3 

1 Pertz, x. p. 21. 

2 " Nulla misericordia habenda est." 

3 Bonizo. It is deserving of remark that Bonizo, an ardent 
supporter of Hildebrand and the reforming party, calls that 
Papal party by the name of Patari, thus showing that it was 
really made up of the Manichean heretics. 



1 64 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

> In the same year Pope Nicholas sent legates into 
different countries to execute, or attempt to execute, 
the decrees passed against simony and concubinage — 
as clerical marriage was called. Peter Damiani 
travelled through several cities of Italy to exhort the 
clergy to celibacy, and especially to press this matter 
on the bishops. Peter Damiani was not satisfied with 
the conduct of the Pope in assuming a stern attitude 
towards the priests, but overlooking the fact that the 
bishops were themselves guilty of the same offence. 
A letter from him to the Pope exists, in which he 
exhorts him to be a second Phinehas (Numb. xxv. 7), 
and deal severely with the bishops, without which no 
real reform could be affected. 1 

* Anselm de Badagio, Bishop of Lucca, the instigator 
of Landulf and Ariald, or at least their staunch 
supporter, was summoned on the death of Nicholas 
to occupy the throne of St. Peter, under the title of 
Alexander II. But his election was contested, and 
Cadalus, an anti-Pope, was chosen by a Council of 
German and Lombard prelates assembled at Basle. 
The contests which ensued between the rival Pontiffs 
and their adherents distracted attention from the 
question of clerical marriage, and the clergy recalled 
their wives. 

\ In 1063, in Florence, similar troubles occurred. 

The instigator of these was St. John Gualberto, 

founder of the Vallombrosian Order. The offence 

there was rather simony than concubinage. 

s The custom of giving fees to those who appointed 

1 Opp. t. iii. ; Opusc. xiii. p. 188. 



THE. PATARINES OF MILAN. 165 

to benefices had become inveterate, and in many cases 
had degenerated into the purchase of them. ; A Pope 
could not assume the tiara without a lavish largess to 
the Roman populace. A bishop could not grasp his 
pastoral staff without paying heavy sums to the 
Emperor and to the Pope. The former payment was 
denounced as simony, the latter was exacted as an 
obligation. But under some of the Emperors the 
bishoprics were sold to the highest bidder. What 
was customary on promotion to a bishopric became 
customary on acceptance of lesser benefices, and no 
priest could assume a spiritual charge without paying 
a bounty to the episcopal treasury. When a bishop 
had bought his throne, he was rarely indisposed to 
sell the benefices in his gift, and to recoup a scandalous 
outlay by an equally scandalous traffic. The Bishop 
of Florence was thought by St. John Gualberto to have 
bought the see. He was a Pavian, Peter Mediabardi. 
His father came to Florence to visit his son. The 
Florentines took advantage of the unguarded simplicity 
of the old man to extract the desired secret from him. 1 

" Master Teulo," said they, " had you a large sum 
to pay to the King for your son's elevation ? " 

" By the body of St. Syrus," answered the father, 
" you cannot get a millstone out of the King's house 
without paying for it." 

"(Then what did you pay ? " asked the Florentines 
greedily. 2 

1 " Cui Florentini clam insidiantes tentando dicere cceperunt," 

&c " ille utpote simplicissimus homo coepit jurejurando 

dicere," &c. — Andrew of Genoa, c. 62. 

2 " Alacres et avidi rem scisitari." 



166 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

'(By the body of St. Syrus ! " replied the old man, 
" not less than three thousand pounds." 
V.No sooner was the unguarded avowal made, than it 
was spread through the city by the enemies of the 
bishop. 1 

- St. John Gualberto took up the quarrel. He ap- 
peared in Florence, where he had a monastery de- 
dicated to St. Salvius, and began vehemently to de- 
nounce the prelate as a simoniac, and therefore a 
heretic. His monks, fired by his zeal, spread through 
the city, and exhorted the people to refuse to accept 
the sacramental acts of their bishop and resist his 
authority. 

VThe people broke out into tumult. The bishop ap- 
pealed to the secular arm to arrest the disorder, and 
officers were sent to coerce the monks of St. Salvius. 
They broke into the monastery at night, sought 
Gualberto, but, unable to find him, maltreated the 
monks. One received a blow on his forehead which 
laid bare the bone, and another had his nose and lips 
gashed with a sword. The monks were stripped, and 
the monastery fired. The abbot rolled himself in an 
old cloak extracted from under a bed, where it had 
been cast as ragged, and awaited day, when the 
wounds and tears of the fraternity might be exhibited 
to a sympathising and excitable people. Nor were 
they disappointed. At daybreak all the town was 
gathered around the dilapidated monastery, and 
people were eagerly mopping up the sacred blood 

1 For the account of what follows, in addition to the biography 
by Andrew of Strumi, we have the Dialogues of Desiderius of 
Monte Cassino, lib. iii. 



THE PATARINES OF MILAN. 167 

that had been shed, with their napkins, thinking that 
they secured valuable relics. Sympathy with the in- 
jured was fanned into frenzied abhorrence of the 
persecutor. 

\ St. John Gualberto appeared on the scene, blazing 
with the desire of martyrdom, 1 and congratulated the 
sufferers on having become confessors of Christ. 
"Now are ye true monks! But why did ye suffer 
without me ? " 

\The secular clergy of Florence were, it is asserted, 
deeply tainted with the same vice as their bishop. 
They had all paid fees at their institution, or had 
bought their benefices. They lived in private houses, 
and were for the most part married. Some were even 
suspected to be of immoral life. 2 

But the preaching of the Saint, the wounds of the 
monks, converted some of the clergy. Those who 
were convinced by their appeals, and those who were 
wearied of their wives, threw themselves into the party 
of Gualberto, and clubbed together in common life. 3 

\The Vallombrosian monks appealed to Pope 
Alexander II. against the bishop, 4 their thirst for 

1 " Martyrii flagrans amore." — Andr. Strum. 

2 " Quis clericorum propriis et paternis rebus solummodo non 
studebat ? Qui potius inveniretur, proh dolor ! qui non esset 
uxoratus vel concubinarius ? De simonia quid dicam ? Omnes 
pene ecclesiasticos ordines haec mortifera bellua devoraverat, 
ut, qui ejus morsum evaserit, rarus inveniretur." — Andr. Sttujn. 

3 " Exemplo vero ipsius et admonitionibus delicati clerici r 
spretis connubiis,cceperunt simul in ecclesiis stare, et communem 
ducere vitam." — Atto Pistor., Vit. S. Joan. Gualb. 

4 For what follows, in addition to the above-quoted authori- 
ties, we have Berthold's Chronicle from 1054 to 1100; Pertz,. 
Mon. Sacr. v. pp. 264-326. 



1 68 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

martyrdom whetted not quenched. 1 If the Pope de- 
sired it, they would try the ordeal of fire to prove 
their charge. Hildebrand, then only sub-deacon, but 
a power in the councils of the Pope, urged on their 
case, and demanded the deposition of the bishop. 
But Alexander, himself among the most resolute op- 
ponents of simony, felt that there was no case. There 
was no evidence, save the prattle of an old man over 
his wine-cups. He refused the petition of the 
monks, and was supported by the vast majority of the 
bishops — there were over a hundred present. 2 

Even St. Peter Damiani, generally unmeasured in 
his invectives against simony, wrote to moderate the 
frantic zeal of the Vallombrosian monks, which 
he denounced as unreasonable, intemperate, un- 
just. 

But the refusal of the Pope to gratify their resent- 
ment did not quell the vehemence of the monks and 
■the faction adverse to the bishop. The city was in a 
condition of chronic insubordination and occasional 
rioting. Godfrey Duke of Tuscany was obliged to in- 
terfere ; and the monks were driven from their 
monastery of St. Salvi, and compelled to retire to that 
■of St. Settimo outside of the gates. 
\ Shortly after, Pope Alexander visited Florence. 
The monks piled up a couple of bonfires, and offered 
to pass between them in proof of the truth of their 
allegation. He refused to permit the ordeal, and 

1 " Securiores de corona, quam jam gustaverant, martyrii." — 
Andr. Strum. 

2 " Favebat enim maxima pars Episcoporum parti Petri, et 
•omnes pene erant monachis adversi." — Andr. Strum. 



THE PATARINES OF MILAN. 169 

withdrew, leaving the bishop unconvicted, and there- 
fore un rebuked. 

v- The clergy of Florence now determined to demand 
of the bishop that he should either go through the 
ordeal himself, or suffer the monks to do so. As they 
went to the palace, the people hooted them : " Go, ye 
heretics, to a heretic ! You who have driven Christ 
out of the city ! You who adore Simon Magus as 
your God ! " 

fThe bishop sullenly refused ; he would neither 
establish his innocence in the fire, nor suffer the 
monks to convict him by the ordeal. 
\ The Podesta of Florence then, with ahigh hand, drove 
from the town the clergy who had joined the monastic 
faction. They went forth on the first Saturday in 
Lent, 1067, amidst a sympathising crowd, composed 
mostly of women, 1 who tore off their veils, and with 
hair scattered wildly over their faces, threw them- 
selves down in the road before the confessors, crying, 
" Alas ! alas ! O Christ, Thou art expelled this city, 
and how dost Thou leave us desolate ? Thou art not 
tolerated here, and how can we live without Thee ? 
Thou canst not dwell with Simon Magus. O holy 
Peter, didst thou once overcome Simon ? and now 
dost thou permit him to have the mastery ? We 
deemed him bound and writhing in infernal flames, 
and lo ! he is loose, and risen again to thy dishonour." 

"And the men said to one another, " Let us set fire 
to this accursed city, which hates Christ." 2 

1 " Maxime feminarum." 

2 " Et nos, viri fratres, civitatem hanc incendamus atque cum 
parvulis et uxoribus nostris, quocumque Christus ierit, secu 



i/o HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

\ The secular clergy were in dismay; denounced, de- 
serted, threatened by the people, they sang no psalms, 
offered no masses. Unable to endure their position, 
they again visited the bishop, and entreated him to 
sanction the ordeal of fire. He refused, and re- 
quested the priests not to countenance such an unau- 
thorised venture, should it be made. But the whole 
town was bent on seeing this ordeal tried, and on the 
Wednesday following the populace poured to the 
monastery of St. Settimo. Two piles of sticks were 
heaped near the monastery gate, measuring ten feet 
long by five wide, and four and a half feet high. 
Between them lay a path the length of an arm in 
width. 

Litanies were chanted whilst the piles were reared,, 
and then the monks proceeded to elect one who was 
to undergo the fire. The lot fell on a priest named 
Peter, and St. John Gualberto ordered him at once to 
the altar to say mass. All assisted with great devo- 
tion, the people crying with excitement. At the 
Agnus Dei four monks, one with the crucifix, another 
with holy water, the third with twelve lighted tapers,, 
the fourth with a full censer, proceeded to the pyres,, 
and set them both on fire. 

\ This threw the people into an ecstasy of excitement,, 
and the voice of the priests was drowned in the cla- 
mour of their tongues. The priest finished mass, and 
laid aside his chasuble. Holding the cross, in alb and 
stole and maniple, he came forth, followed by St. 

eamus. Si Christiani sumus, Christum sequamur." — Andr. 
Strum. 



THE PA TARINES OF MILAN. 171 

John Gualberto and the monks, chanting. Suddenly 
a silence fell on the tossing concourse, and a monk 
appointed by the abbot stood forth, and in a clear 
voice said to the people, ".Men, brethren, and sisters ! 
we do this for the salvation of your souls, that hence- 
forth ye may learn to avoid the leprosy of simony, 
which has infected nearly the whole world ; for the 
crime of simony is so great, that beside it every other 
crime is as nothing." 

V.The two piles were burning vigorously. The priest 
Peter prayed, " Lord Christ, I beseech Thee, if Peter 
of Pavia, called Bishop of Florence, has obtained the 
episcopal throne by money, do Thou assist me in this 
terrible ordeal, and deliver me from being burned, as 
of old Thou didst deliver the three children in the 
midst of the burning furnace." Then, giving the 
brethren the kiss of peace, he stepped fearlessly be- 
tween the burning pyres, and came forth on the far- 
ther side uninjured. 

\ His linen alb, his silken stole and maniple, were un- 
burnt. He would have again rushed through the 
flames in the excess of his confidence, but was pre- 
vented by the pious vehemence of the people, who 
surrounded him, kissed his feet, clung to his vest- 
ments, and would have crushed him to death in 
their eagerness to touch and see him, had he 
not been rescued by the strong arms of burly 
monks. 

x In after years he told, and talked himself in- 
to believing, that as he passed through the fire, 
his maniple fell off. Discovering his loss ere 
he emerged, he turned back, and deliberately 



i/2 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

picked it up. But of this nothing was said at the 
time. 1 

V A letter was then drawn up, appealing to the Pope 
in the most vehement terms, to deliver the sheep of 
the Florentine flock from the ravening wolf who shep- 
herded them, and urging him, not obscurely, to use 
force if need be, and compel by his troops the evacu- 
ation of the Florentine episcopal throne. Peter of 
Pavia, the bishop, a man of gentle character, yielded 
to the storm. He withdrew from Florence, and was 
succeeded by another Peter, whom the people called 
Peter the Catholic, to distinguish him from the Sim- 
oniac. But Muratori adduces evidence that the former 
continued to be recognised by the Pope some time 
after his supposed degradation. Thus ended the 
schism of Florence in the entire triumph of the Pata- 
rines. Hildebrand was not unobservant ; he proved 
afterwards not to be forgetful of the lesson taught by 
this schism, — the utilization of the rude mob as a 
powerful engine in the hands of the fanatical or de- 
signing. It bore its fruit in the canons of 1074. 



II. 

\r\NSELM DE BADAGIO, Bishop of Lucca, had succeeded 
Nicholas II. to the Papal throne in 1061. Cadalus 
of Parma had been chosen by the German and Lom- 
bard prelates on October 28th, and he assumed the 
name of Honorius II. But no Roman Cardinal was 

1 It is not mentioned in the epistle of the Florentines to the 
Pope, narrating the ordeal and supposed miracle, which is given 
by Andrew of Strurri and Atto of Pistoja. 



THE PATARINES OF MILAN. 173 

present to sanction this election. Cadalus was 
acknowledged by all the simoniacal and married 
clergy, when he entered Italy ; but the Princess 
Beatrice and the Duke of Tuscany prevented him 
from advancing to Rome. From Parma Cadalus 
excommunicated Alexander, and from Rome, Alex- 
ander banned Honorius. The cause of Alexander 
was that of the Patarines, but the question of mar- 
riage and simony paled before the more glaring one, 
of which of the rival claimants was the actual Pope. 

\ The voice of Landulf Cotta was silenced. A terrible 
cancer had consumed the tongue which had kept 
Milan for six years in a blaze of faction. But his 
room was speedily filled by a more implacable adver- 
sary of the married clergy — his brother, Herlembald, 
a stern, able soldier. An event in Herlembald's early 
life had embittered his heart against the less rigid 
clergy. His plighted bride had behaved lightly with 
a priest. He was just returned from a pilgrimage to 
Jerusalem, his zeal kindled to enthusiasm. He went 
to Rome, where he was well received by Alexander 
II. Pie came for authority to use his sword for the 
Patarines. The sectaries in Milan had said to him, 
l \ We desire to deliver the Church, besieged and de- 
graded by the married priests ; do thou deliver by the 
law of the sword, we will do so by the law of God." 
Alexander II., in a public consistory, created Herlem- 
bald " Defender of the Church," gave him the sacred 
banner of St. Peter, and bade him go back to Milan 
and shed blood — his, if necessary, those of the anti- 
Patarines certainly — in this miserable quarrel. 

I The result was that the Patarines were filled with 



174 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

new zeal, and lost all compunction at shedding blood 
and pillaging houses. Herlembald established him- 
self in a large mansion, which he fortified and filled 
with mercenaries ; over it waved the consecrated 
banner of St. Peter. From this stronghold he issued 
forth to assail the obnoxious clergy. They were 
dragged from their altars and consigned to shame 
and insult. The services of the Church, the celebra- 
tion of the sacraments, were suspended, or administered 
only by the one or two priests who adhered to the 
Patari. It is said that, in order to keep his rude 
soldiery in pay, Herlembald made every clerk take 
a solemn oath that he had ever kept innocence, and 
would wholly abstain from marriage or concubinage. 
Those who could not, or would not, take this oath 
were expelled the city, and their whole property 
confiscated to support the standing corps of hireling 
ruffians maintained by the Crusader. The lowest 
rabble, poor artisans and ass-drivers, furtively placed 
female ornaments in the chambers of the priests, and 
then, attacking their houses, dragged them out and 
plundered their property. By 1064, when a synod 
was held at Mantua by the Pope, Milan was purged 
of " Simoniacs and Nicolaitans," and the clergy who 
remained were gathered together into a house to live 
in common, under rule. 

Guido of Milan and all the Lombard prelates 
attended that important synod, which saw the triumph 
of Alexander, his reconciliation with the Emperor, and 
the general abandonment of the anti-Pope, Cadalus. 

In the following year, Henry IV. was under the 
tutelage of Adalbert of Bremen ; he had escaped from 



THE PATARINES OF MILAN. 175 

Anno, Archbishop of Cologne, who had favoured the 
strict faction and Alexander II. The situation in 

Lombardy changed simultaneously. Herlembald had 
assumed a power, an authority higher than that of the 
archbishop, whom he refused to recognise, and de- 
nounced as a heretic. Guido, weary of the nine years 
of strife he had endured, relieved from the fear of in- 
terference from Germany, resolved on an attempt to 
throw off the hateful yoke. The churches of Milan 
were for the most part without pastors. The married 
clergy had been expelled, and there were none to take 
their place. The Archbishop had been an obedient 
penitent for five years, compromising his one hundred 
years of penitence by payments into the Papal trea- 
sury ; but as the cause of Alexander declined, his 
contrition languished, died out ; and he resumed his 
demands for fees at ordinations and institutions, at 
least so clamoured Ariald and Herlembald in the ears 
of Rome. 

I A party in Milan had long resented the despotism 
of the " Law of God and the law of the sword " of 
Ariald and Herlembald, and an effort was made to 
break it, with the sanction, no doubt, of the Arch- 
bishop. A large body of the citizens rose, " headed," 
says Andrew of Strumi, " by the sons of the priests," 
and attacked the church and house of Ariald, but, 
unable to find him, contented themselves with wreck- 
ing the buildings. Thereupon Herlembald swept 
down at the head of his mercenaries, surrounded the 
crowd, and hewed them to pieces to the last man, 
" like the vilest cattle." 1 

1 " Hsec ut nobilis Herembaldus ceterique Fideles audiere, 



176 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

Guido, the Archbishop, now acted with resolution, 
and boldly took up the cause of the married clergy. 
Having heard that two priests of Monza, infected 
with Patarinism, had turned their wives out of their 
houses, he ordered the arrest of the priests, and 
punished them with imprisonment in the castle of 
Lecco. On hearing this, the Patarines flew to arms, 
and swarmed out of Milan after Ariald, who bore the 
banner of St. Peter, as Herlembald was absent at 
Rome. They met the mounted servants of the Arch- 
bishop near Monza, surprised them, and wrested from 
them a promise to surrender the priests. Three days 
after, the curates were delivered up. Ariald, at the 
head of the people, met them outside the gates, re- 
ceived them with enthusiasm, crying, " See, these are 
the brave martyrs of Christ ! " and escorted them to a 
church, where they intoned a triumphant Te Deiun. 

Herlembald returned from Rome to Milan with a 
bull of excommunication fulminated by the Pope 
against the Archbishop. Guido summoned the 
Milanese to assemble in the cathedral church on the 
vigil of Pentecost. 

In the meantime the Patarines were torn into 
factions on a subtle point mooted by Ariald. That 
demagogue had ventured to assail in a sermon the 
venerable custom of the Milanese, which required 
them to fast during the Rogation days. Was he 
greater than St. Ambrose ? Did he despise the 
authority of the great doctor ? On this awful subject 

sumptis armis, in audacem plebem et temerariam irruere ; quos 
protinus exterminavere omnes, quasi essent vilissimas pecudes." 
— Andr. Strum. 



THE PATARINES OF MILAN. 177 

the Patarines divided, and with the division lost their 
strength. 

^Neither Herlembald nor Ariald seems to have been 
prepared for the bold action of the Archbishop. On 
the appointed day the cathedral was filled with sub- 
stantial citizens and nobles. Herlembald missed the 
wolfish eyes, ragged hair, and hollow cheeks of his 
sectaries, and, fearing danger, leaped over the chancel 
rails, and took up his position near the altar. The 
Archbishop mounted the ambone with the bull of 
excommunication in his hand. " See ! " he ex- 
claimed, " this is the result of the turbulence of these 
demagogues, Ariald and Herlembald. This city, out 
of reverence to St. Ambrose, has never obeyed the 
Roman Church. Shall we be crushed ? Take away 
out of the land of the living these disturbers of the 
public peace, who labour day and night to rob us of 
our ancient liberties." 

He was interrupted by a shout of " Let them be 
killed!" Guido paused, and then cried out, " All who 
honour and cleave to St. Ambrose, leave the church, 
that we may know who are our adversaries." In- 
stantly from the doors rolled out the dense crowd, 
seven hundred in number, according to the estimation 
of Andrew, the biographer of Ariald. Only twelve 
men were left within who stood firm to the Patarine 
cause. Ariald had, in the meantime, taken refuge in 
the choir beside Herlembald. The clergy selected 
Ariald, the laity Herlembald, for their victims. 
Ariald was dragged from the church, severely 
wounded. Herlembald escaped better ; using his 
truncheon, he beat off his assailants till he had 

M 



178 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

climbed to a place of safety, whence he could not be 
easily dislodged. 

\ As night fell, the Patarines gathered, stormed, and 
pillaged the palace of the Archbishop, and, bursting 
into the church, liberated Herlembald. Guido hardly 
escaped on horseback, sorely maltreated in the 
tumult. His adherents fled like smoke before the' 
tempest. Ariald was found bleeding and faint, and 
was conveyed by the multitude in triumph to the 
church of St. Sepolcro. Then Herlembald called to 
the roaring mob to be still. " Let us ask Master 
Ariald whose house is to be first given up to sack." 

But Ariald earnestly dissuaded from further violence,, 
and entreated the vehement dictator to spare the 
lives and property of their enemies. 

The surprise to the Archbishop's party was, how- 
ever, temporary only. By morning they had rallied^ 
and the city was again in their hands. Guido pub- 
lished an interdict against Milan, which was to re- 
main in force as long as it harboured Ariald. No 
mass was said, no bells rang, the church doors were 
bolted and barred. Ariald was secretly removed by 
some of his friends to the village of St. Victor, where 
also Herlembald had been constrained to take refuge 
with a party of mercenaries. Thence they made their 
way to Pavia and to Padua, where they hoped to ob- 
tain a boat, and escape to Rome. But the whole 
country was up against them, and Herlembald was 
obliged to disband his soldiers, and attempt to escape 
in disguise. Ariald was left with a priest whose ac- 
quaintance Herlembald had made in Jerusalem. But 
a priest was the last person likely to secrete the 



THE PA TARINES OF MILAN. 179 

tyrant and persecutor of the clergy. He treacher- 
ously sent word to the Archbishop, and Ariald was 
taken by the servants of Olivia, the niece of Guido, 
and conveyed to an island on the Lago Maggiore. 
;He was handed over to the cruel mercies of two 
married priests, who directed his murder with cold- 
blooded heartlessness, if we may trust the gossip 
picked up later. His ears, nose and lips were cut 
off. He was asked if he would acknowledge Guido 
for Archbishop. " As long as my tongue can speak," 
he replied, " I will not." The servants of Olivia tore 
out his tongue ; he was beaten by the two savage 
priests, and when he fainted, was flung into the calm 
waters of the lovely lake. Andrew of Vallombrosa, 
or Strumi, followed in his trace, and hung about the 
neighbourhood till he heard from a peasant the awful 
story. He sought the mangled body. 1 It was found 
and transported to Milan on the feast of the Ascension 
following. For ten days it was exposed in the church 
of St. Ambrose, that all might venerate it> and was 
finally disposed in the convent of St. Celsus. In the 
memory of man, never had such a crowd been seen. 
"The Archbishop deemed it prudent to retire, and 
Herlembald profited by his absence to recover his 
power, and make the people swear to avenge the 
martyr, and unite to the death for the " good cause." 
The events in Milan had their counterpart in the 
other cities of Lombardy, especially at Cremona, 

1 Ariald was murdered on June 27, 1065. Andrew of Strumi 
says 1066 ; but he followed the Florentine computation — he had 
been a priest of Florence — which made the year begin on 
March 25, 



I 8o HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

where the bishopric had been obtained by Arnulf, 
nephew of Guido of Milan. In that city, twelve men, 
headed by one Christopher, took the Patarine oath to 
fight the married clergy ; the people joined them, 
and forced their oath on the bishop-elect before he 
was ordained. But, as in 1067, he seized a Patarine 
priest, a sedition broke out, in which the bishop was 
seriously injured. The inhabitants of Cremona, after 
Easter, sent ambassadors to the Pope, and received 
from him a reply, given by Bonizo, exhorting them 
not to allow a priest, deacon or sub-deacon, suspected 
of concubinage or simony, to hold a benefice or 
execute his ministry. The consequence of this letter 
was that all suspected clerks were excluded from their 
offices ; and shortly after, the same course was fol- 
lowed at Piacenza. Asti, Lodi, and Ravenna also 
threw in their lot with the Patarines. 

Tn 1067, Alexander II. sent legates to Milan to 
settle the disturbances therein. Adalbert of Bremen 
had fallen, and again the Papal party were in the 
ascendant. The fortunes of Milan fluctuated with 
the politics of those who held the regency in the 
minority of Henry IV. 

\ Guido, now advanced in years, and weary of ruling 
so turbulent a diocese, determined to vacate a see 
which he had held for twenty-seven years ; the last 
ten of incessant civil war. He burdened it with a 
pension to himself, and then made it over to Godfrey, 
the sub-deacon, along with the pastoral staff and ring. 
Godfrey crossed the Alps, took the oath of allegiance 
to" the Emperor, promised to use his utmost en- 
deavours to exterminate the Patarines, and to deliver 



THE PATARINES OF MILAN. i8r 

Herlembald alive into the hands of the Emperor, 
laden with chains. Friend and foe, without scruple, 
designate the followers of the Papal policy as 
Patarines ; it is therefore startling, a few years later, 
when the Popes had carried their point, to find them 
insisting on the luckless Patarines being given in 
wholesale hecatombs to the flames, as damnable 
heretics. It was an ungracious return for the battle 
these heretics had fought under the banner of St. 
Peter. 

\But Herlembald refused to acknowledge Godfrey, 
he devastated the country with fire and sword where- 
ever Godfrey was acknowledged, and created such 
havoc that not a day passed in the holy Lenten fast 
without the effusion of much Christian blood. 
Finally, Herlembald drove the archbishop-elect to 
take refuge in the strong fortress of Castiglione. 
Guido, not receiving his pension, annulled his resigna- 
tion, and resumed his state. But he unwisely trusted 
to the good faith of Herlembald ; he was seized, 1 and 
shut up in a monastery till his death, which took 
place August 23, 1071. 

The year before this, 1070, Adelheid, Margravine 
of Turin, mother-in-law of the young Emperor, at- 
tacked the Patarines, and burnt the cities of Lodi and 
Asti. On March 19, 1071, as Herlembald was be- 
sieging Castiglione, a terrible conflagration broke out 
in Milan, and consumed a great part of the city and 
several of the stateliest churches. Whilst the army 
of Herlembald was agitated by the report of the fire, 
Godfrey burst out Castiglione, and almost routed the 
1 " Gloriosus hac vice delusus," says Arnulf. 



1 82 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

besiegers. Before the death of Guido, Herlembald, 
with the sanction of the Pope, had set up a certain 
Otto to be Archbishop, nominated by himself and the 
Papal legate, without consulting the electors of Milan 
or the Emperor, January 6, A.D. 1072. 

Otto was but a youth, just admitted into holy 
orders, likely to prove a pliant tool in the strong hand 
of the dictator. It was the Feast of the Epiphany, 
and the streets were thronged with people, when the 
news leaked out that an archbishop had been chosen, 
and was now holding the customary banquet after 
election in the archiepiscopal palace. 

\The people were furious, rose and attacked the 
house, hunted the youthful prelate out of an attic, 
where he had taken refuge, dragged him by his legs 
and arms into the church, and compelled him to 
swear to renounce his dignity. The Roman legate 
hardly escaped with his robes torn. 

Herlembald, who had been surprised, recovered the 
upper hand in Milan on the morrow, but not in the 
open country, which was swept by the imperial troops. 
The suffragan bishops of Lombardy assembled at 
Novara directly they heard of what had taken place 
in Milan, and consecrated Godfrey as their arch- 
bishop. 

' Otto appealed to Rome (January, 1072), and a 
few weeks later the Pope assembled a synod, and 
absolved Otto of his oath extorted from him at 
Milan, acknowledged him as archbishop, and struck 
Godfrey with interdict. Alexander II. died April 
21, 1073, and the tiara rested on the brows of the 
great Hildebrand. 



THE PA TARINES OF MILAN. 183 

\0n June 24, Hildebrand, now Gregory VII., wrote 
to the Margravine Beatrice to abstain from all rela- 
tions with the excommunicated bishops of Lombardy; 
on June 28, to William, Bishop of Pavia, to oppose 
the usurper, the excommunicate Godfrey of Milan ; 
on July 1, to all the faithful of Lombardy to refrain 
from that false bishop, who lay under the apostolic 
ban. From Capua, on September 27, he wrote to 
Herlembald, exhorting him to fight valiantly, and 
hold out Milan against the usurper Godfrey. Again, 
on October 9, to Herlembald, bidding him be of good 
courage ; he hoped to detach the young Emperor 
from the party of Godfrey, and bade him receive 
amicably those who, with true sentiments of con- 
trition, came over to the Patarine, that is, the Papal 
side. 

\ On March 10, 1074, Gregory held one of the most 
important synods, not of his reign only, but ever 
held~ by any Pope. The acts of this assembly have 
been lost or suppressed, but its most important 
decisions were summed up in a letter from Gregory 
to the Bishop of Constance. This letter has not been 
printed in the Registrum ; but fortunately it has been 
preserved by two contemporary writers, Paul of 
Bernried, and Bernold of Constance, the latter of 
whom has supplied a detailed apology for the law of 
celibacy promulgated in that synod. Gregory abso-, 
lutely forbade all priests sullied with the crimen^ 
fomicationis, which embraced legitimate marriage, 
either to say a mass or to serve at one; and the ; 
people were strictly enjoined to shun their churches' 
and their sacraments ; and when the bishops were | 



1 84 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

remiss, he exhorted them themselves to enforce the 
pontifical sentence. 1 

The results shall be described in. the words of a 
contemporary historian, Sigebert of Gemblours. 
" Many," says he, " seeing in this prohibition to hear 
a mass said by a married priest a manifest contra- 
diction to the doctrine of the Fathers, who believed 
that the efficacy of sacraments, such as baptism, 
chrism, and the Body and Blood of Christ, is inde- 
pendent of the dignity of the minister, thence resulted 
a grievous scandal ; never, perhaps, greater, even in 
the time of the great heresies, was the Church divided 
by a greater schism. Some did not abandon their 
simony, others disguised their avarice under a more 
acceptable name ; what they boasted they had given 
gratuitously, they in reality sold ; very few preserved 
continence. Some through greed of lucre, or senti- 
ments of pride, simulated chastity, but many added 
false oaths and numerous adulteries to their debauch- 
eries. The laity seized the opportunity to rise against 
the clerical order, and to excuse themselves for dis- 

1 " Audivimus quod quidam Episcoporum apud vos cora- 
morantium, aut sacerdotes, et diaconi, et subdiaconi mulieribus 
commisceantur aut consentiant aut negligant. His praecipimus 
vos nullo modo obedire, vel illorum praeceptis consentire, sicut 
ipsi apostolicse sedis praeceptis non obediunt neque auctoritati 
sanctorum patrum consentiunt." " Quapropter ad omnes de 
quorum fide et devotione confidimus nunc convertimur, rogantes 
vos et apostolica auctoritate admonentes ut quidquid- Episcopi 
dehinc loquantur aut taceant, vos omcium eorum quos aut 
simoniace promotos et ordinatos aut in crimine fornicationis 
jacentes cognoveritis, nullatenus recipiatis." — Letter to the 
Franconians (Baluze, Misc. vii. p. 125). 



THE PATARINES OF MILAN. 185. 

obedience to the Church. They profaned the holy 
mysteries, administering baptism themselves, and 
using the wax out of their ears as chrism. They 
refused on their death-beds to receive the viaticum 
from the married priests ; they would not even be 
buried by them. Some went so far as to trample 
under foot the Host, and pour out the precious Blood 
consecrated by married priests." 1 

IThe affairs of the church of Milan continued in the 
same unsatisfactory condition. The contest between 
the Patarines and their adversaries had taken greater 
dimensions. The question which divided them was 
now less that of the marriage of the clergy than 
which of the rival archbishops was to be acknow- 
ledged. Godfrey was supported by the Emperor, 
Otto by the Pope. The parties were about even ; 
neither Godfrey nor Otto could maintain himself in 
Milan ; the former fortified himself in the castle of 
Brebbio, the latter resided at Rome. Henry IV., in 
spite of all the admonitions of the Pope, persisted in 
supporting the cause of Godfrey. Milan was thus with- 
out a pastor. The suffragan bishops wished to execute 
their episcopal functions in the city, and to consecrate 
the holy oils for the benediction of the fonts at Whit- 
suntide. Herlembald, when one of the bishops had 
sent chrism into the city for the purpose, poured it 
out on the ground and stamped on it, because it had 
been consecrated by an excommunicated prelate. 
\ In March, 1075, another conflagration broke out in 
the city, and raged with even greater violence than 
the fire of 1071. Herlembald had again poured forth 

1 Peitz, viii. p. 362. 



1 85 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

the oils, as he had the year before ; and had ordered 
Leutprand, a priest, as Easter came, to proceed 
to the consecration of chrism. This innovation 
roused the alarm of the Milanese ; the subsequent 
conflagration convinced them that it was abhorrent to 
heaven. All the adversaries of the Patarines assem- 
bled outside the city, and swore to preserve intact the 
privileges of St. Ambrose, and to receive only the 
bishop nominated or approved by the King. Then, 
entering the city, they fell unexpectedly on the Pata- 
rines. Leutprand was taken and mutilated, his ears 
and nose were cut off. The standard of St. Peter 
was draggled in the dust, and Herlembald fell with 
it, cut down by a noble, Arnold de Rauda. Every 
insult was heaped on the body of the " Defender of 
the Church," and the sacred banner was trampled 
under foot. 

^"Messengers were sent to Henry IV. to announce 
the triumph, and to ask him to appoint a new Arch- 
bishop of Milan. Henry was so rejoiced at the 
victory, that he abandoned Godfrey, and promised 
the Milanese a worthy prelate. His choice fell on 
Tebald, a Milanese sub-deacon in his Court. 

Pope Urban II. canonised Herlembald. Ariald 
seems never to have been formally enrolled among 
the saints, but he received honours as a saint at 
Milan, and has been admitted into several Italian 
Martyrologies, and into the collection of the Bollan- 
dists. Baronius wisely expunged Herlembald and 
Ariald from the Roman Martyrology ; nevertheless, 
the disgraceful fact remains, that the ruffian Herlem- 
bald has been canonised by Papal bull. 



THE PATARINES OF MILAN. 187 

The seeds of fresh discord remained. Leutprand, 
or Liprand, the priest, was curate of the Church of 
St. Paul ; 1 having suffered mutilation in the riot, he 
was regarded in the light of a Patarine confessor. 
But no outbreak took place till the death of 
Anselm IV., Archbishop of Milan (September 30, 
noi), at Constantinople, where he was on his way 
with the Crusaders to the Holy Land. His vicar, the 
Greek, Peter Chrysolaus, Bishop of Savonia, whom 
the Lombards called Grossulani, perhaps because of 
the coarse habit he wore (more probably as a corrup- 
tion for Chrysolaus), had been left in charge of the 
see of Milan. On the news of the death of the 
Archbishop reaching that city, the Primicerius con- 
voked the electors to choose a successor. The vote 
fell on Landulf, Ordinary of Milan ; but he was not 
yet returned from Jerusalem, whither he had gone as 
a crusader. Grossulani declared the election in- 
formal. Thereupon the Abbot of St. Dionysius, at 
the head of a large party of the electors, chose Peter 
Grossulani. There is no evidence of his having used 
bribery in any form ; but he may have acted unjustly 
in cancelling the election of Landulf. It is, however, 
fair to observe that Landulf, on his return, supported 
Grossulani ; consequently, it is probable that the 
latter acted strictly in accordance with law and 
precedent 

\ But the election displeased Liprand and the 
remains of the Patarines. They appealed to Rome, 
but Grossulani, supported by the Countess Matilda 

1 The life of Liprand was written by Landulf the younger, his 
sister's son, in his Hist. Mediolan. 1095-1137. 



1 88 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

and St. Bernard, abbot of Vallombrosa, overcame 
their objections. Pope Paschal II. ratified the elec- 
tion, and sent the pall to the Archbishop. Ardericus 
de Carinate had been sent to Rome on behalf of 
Grossulani. The people came out of the gates, on 
his approach, to learn the result. Ardericus, hanging 
the pall across his umbrella (protensi virga), waved it 
over his head, shouting, " Ecco la stola ! Ecco la 
stola ! " (Here is the pall !) and led the way into the 
cathedral, whither Grossulani also hastened, and 
ascending the pulpit in his pontifical habit, placed 
the coveted insignia about his neck. 
\ Liprand was not satisfied. By means of private 
agitation, he disturbed the tranquillity of public feel- 
ing, and the Archbishop, to calm the minds of the 
populace, was obliged to convoke a provincial synod 
at Milan (1103), in which, in the presence of his 
suffragans, the clergy and the people, he said, " If 
anyone has a charge to make against me, let him 
speak openly at the present time, or he shall not be 
heard." 

Liprand would not appear before the council and 
formally make charge, but he mounted the pulpit in 
the Church of St. Paul, and preached against the 
Archbishop as a simoniac. He declared his readiness 
to prove his charge by the ordeal of fire. The bishops 
assembled in council refused to suffer the attempt to 
be made. 

\ However, Liprand was not deterred. " Look at my 
amputated nose and ears ! " he cried, " I am a confessor 
for Christ. I will try the ordeal by fire to substantiate 
my charge. Grossulani is a simoniac, by gift of hand, 



THE PA TARINES OF MILAN. 189 

gift of tongue, and gift of homage." And he gave his 
wolf-skin cloak and some bottles of wine in exchange 
for wood, which the crowd carried off and heaped up 
in a great pile against the wall of the monastery of St. 
Ambrogio. The Archbishop sent his servants, and 
they overturned the stack and scattered the wood. 
Then the crowd of " boys and girls, men and women," 
poured through the main streets, roaring, " Away with 
Grossulani, away with him ! " and clamoured around 
the doors of the archiepiscopal palace, so that Grossu- 
lani, fearing for his life, said, " Be it so, let the fellow 
try the fire, or let him ieave Milan." His servants with 
difficulty appeased the people, by promising that the 
ordeal should be undergone on the following Palm 
Sunday evening. " I will not leave the city," said 
Liprand ; " but now I have no money for buying wood, 
and I will not sell my books, as I keep them for my 
nephew Landulf, now at school." So the magistrates 
of the city prepared a pile of billets of oak wood. 

On the appointed day Liprand, barefooted, in sack- 
cloth, bearing a cross, went to the Church of Saints 
Gervasius and Protasius and sang mass. Grossulani 
also, bearing a cross, entered the same church and 
mounted the pulpit, attended by Ariald de Marignano, 
and Berard, Judge of Asti. Silence being made, and 
Liprand having taken his place barefooted " on the 
marble stone at the entrance to the choir, containing 
an image of Hercules," Grossulani addressed the 
people : " Listen, and I will silence this man in three 
words." Then turning to Liprand, he asked, "You 
have charged me with being a simoniac. To whom 
have I given anything? Answer me." 



190 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

Liprand, raising his eyes to the pulpit, pointed to 
those who occupied it and said, " Look at those three 
great devils, who think to confound me by their wit 
and wealth. 1 I appeal to the judgment of God." 

Grossulani said, " But I ask what act of simony do 
you lay to my charge ? " 

Liprand answered, " Do you answer me, What is 
the lightest form of simony?" 

The Archbishop, after some consideration, answered, 
" To refrain from deposing a simoniac." 

V'And I say that is simony which consists in depos- 
ing an abbot from his abbacy, a bishop from his 
bishopric, and an archbishop from his archbishopric." 2 
\ The people became impatient, and began to shout, 
" Come out, come out to the ordeal ! " Then Liprand 
"jumped down from the stone, containing the image 
of Hercules," and went forth accompanied by the 
multitude to the field where the pyre was made. 
There arose then a difficulty about the form of oath 
to be administered. Liprand, seeing that there was 
some hesitation, said, " Let me manage it, and see if 
I do not satisfy you all ! " Whereupon he took hold 
of the hood of the Archbishop and shook it, and said 

1 " Proposuisti quod ego sum simoniacus per munus a manu. 
Modo die : cui dedi ; Tunc presbyter super populum oculos 
aperuit, et digitum ad eos, qui stabunt in pulpito, extendit, 
dicens, Videte tres grandissimos diabolos, qui per ingenium et 
pecuniam suam putant me confundere." 

2 It is very evident from this discussion that Grossulani was 
innocent of true simony ; the whole charge against him was due 
to his having quashed the election of Landulf, and thus of hav- 
ing deposed, after a fashion, "an archbishop from his arch- 
bishopric." 



THE PA TARINES OF MILAN. 191 

in a loud voice, " That .Grossulani, who is under this 
hood, he, and no other, has obtained the archbishop- 
ric of Milan simoniacally, by gift of hand, gift of 
tongue, and gift of service. And I, who enter on this 
ordeal, swear that I have used no charm, or incanta- 
tion, or withcraft." 

\The Archbishop, unwilling to remain, remounted 
his horse and rode to the Church of St. John " ad con- 
cham," but Ariald of Marignano remained to see 
that the ordeal was rightly carried out. When the 
pile was lighted, he said to the priest, " In heaven's 
name, return to your duty, and do not rush on certain 
death." But Liprand answered, " Get thee behind 
me, Satan," and signing himself, and blessing the fire 
with consecrated water, he rushed through the flames, 
barefooted, in sackcloth cassock and silk chasuble. 
\He came out on the other side uninjured; a sudden 
draught had parted the flames as he entered, and when 
he emerged his feet were not burnt, nor was his silk 
chasuble scorched. 

"vThe people shouted at the miracle, and Grossulani 
was obliged to fly from the city. 

,, It was soon rumoured, however, that Liprand was 
suffering from a scorched hand and an injured foot. 
It was in vain for his friends to assure the people that 
his hand had been burnt when he was throwing the 
holy water on the flames before he entered them, and 
that his foot was injured not by the fire, but by the 
hoof of a horse as he emerged from the flames. One 
part of the mob began to clamour against Liprand 
that he was an impostor, the other to exalt him as a 
saint, and the streets became the scene of riot and 



ig 2 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

bloodshed. At this juncture Landulf of Vereglate, 
who had been just elected to the vacant see, arrived 
from Jerusalem, and finding that the Archbishop had 
fled the city, he appealed to the people to cease from 
their riots, and promised to have Grossulani deposed, 
or at least the charges brought against him properly- 
investigated at Rome. The tumults were with diffi- 
culty allayed, and the Archbishop, Landulf, and Lip- 
rand went to Rome (A.D. 1103). A Synod was con- 
vened and Liprand brought his vague accusations of 
simony against the Archbishop. Landulf refused to 
support him, so that it is hardly probable that he can 
have felt himself aggrieved by the conduct of Grossu- 
lani. Liprand, being unable to substantiate his charge 
of simony, was obliged to change the nature of his 
accusation, and charged the Archbishop with having 
forced him to submit to the ordeal of fire. The Pope 
and the Synod required the Archbishop to clear him- 
self by oath ; accordingly Grossulani did so, in the 
following terms : " I, Grossulani, by the grace of God 
Archbishop, did not force Liprand to enter the fire.'' 
Azo, Bishop of Acqui, and Arderic, Bishop of Lodi, 
took the oath with him ; at the same time the pastoral 
staff slipped from the hands of the Archbishop and 
fell on the floor, a sign, the biographer of Liprand says, 
that he forswore himself. 1 

\ The Archbishop withdrew, his authority confirmed 
by the Holy See, and he returned to Milan, where he 
was well received. 

1 It is evident from the account of Landulf the younger him- 
self, that the Archbishop did not force the priest . to enter on 
the ordeal. 



THE PATARINES OF MILAN. 193 

•.The Archbishop took an unworthy opportunity, in 
1 1 10, of ridding the city of the presence of Liprand for 
that priest having taken into his house and cured a 
certain Herebert of Bruzano, an enemy of the Arch- 
bishop, who was ill with fever. Grossulani deprived 
Liprand of his benefice, and the priest retired into the 
Valteline. Troubles broke out in Milan between the 
two parties, which produced civil war, and the Arch- 
bishop was driven out of the city, whereupon Liprand 
returned to it. The friends of Grossulani persuaded 
him to visit Jerusalem, and he started, after having 
appointed Arderic, Bishop of Lodi, his vicar (a.D. 
nil). During his absence both parties united to re- 
ject him, and they elected Jordano of Cliva in his 
room (Jan. 1, A.D. n 12). Mainnard, Archbishop of 
Turin, hastened to Rome, and received the pall from 
the Pope, on condition that it should not be worn for 
six months. But the rumours having spread that 
Grossulani was returning from Jerusalem, Mainnard 
came to Milan, and placed the pall on the altar of St. 
Ambrose, whence Jordano took it and laid it about 
his shoulders. 

On the return of Grossulani, civil war broke out 
again between the two factions, which ended in both 
Archbishops being summoned to Rome in n 16; and 
the Pope ordered Grossulani to return to his bishopric 
of Savonia, and confirmed Jordano in the archbishop- 
ric of Milan. But before this Liprand had died 3rd 
January, 11 13. His sanctity was almost immediately 
attested by a miracle, in spite of the disparagement of 
his virtues by the party of the Archbishop Grossulani ; 
for a certain knight of Piacenza, having swallowed a 

N 



194 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

v fish-bone which stuck in his throat, in sleep saw the 
v priest appear to him and touch his throat, whereupon 
> a violent fit of coughing ensued, in which the bone was 
' ejected ; this was considered quite sufficient to estab- 
t lish the claim of Liprand to be regarded as a saint. 



Zhc Hnabaptist of flDunster. 

To the year 1524 Mlinster, the capital of Westphalia, 
had remained faithful to the religion which S. Swibert, 
coadjutor of S. Willibrord, first Bishop of Utrecht, 
had brought to it in the 7th century. But then 
Lutheranism was introduced into it. 

, Frederick von Wied at that time occupied the 
Episcopal throne. He was brother to Hermann, 
Archbishop of Cologne, who was afterwards de- 
prived for his secession to Lutheranism. 

•The religious revolution in the Westphalian capital 
at its commencement presents the same symptoms 
which characterised the beginning of the Reformation 
elsewhere. The town council were prepared to hail 
it as a means of overthrowing the Episcopal authority, 
and establishing the municipal power as supreme in 
the city. 

-Already the State of Juliers had embraced the new 
religion, and faith had been shaken in Osnabnick, 
Minden, and Paderborn, when the first symptoms ap- 
peared in Munster. 

- Four priests, the incumbents of the parishes of St. 
Lambert, St. Ludger, St. Martin, and the Lieb-Frau 
Church, commonly called Ueberwasser, declared for 
the Reform. The contemporary historian, Kerssen- 
broeck, an eye-witness of all he describes, says of 

195 



196 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

them, ""They indulged in the most violent abuse of 
the clergy, they cursed good works, assured their 
auditors that such works would not receive the 
smallest recompense, and permitted every one to give 
way to all the excesses of so-called Evangelical 
liberty." 1 They stirred up their hearers against the 
religious orders, and the people clamoured daily at 
the gates of the monasteries and nunneries, insisting 
on being given food ; and the monks and nuns were 
too much frightened to refuse those whom impunity 
rendered daily more exacting. 2 On the night of the 
22nd March, 1525, they attacked the rich convent of 
nuns at Nizink, with intentions of pillaging it. They 
failed in this attempt, and the ringleaders were 
seized and led before the magistrates, followed by an 
excited and tumultuous crowd of men and women, 
'" evangelically disposed," as the chronicler says. 
Hoping to ally the effervescence, the magistrates 
asked the cause of complaint against the nuns of 
Nizink, and then came out the true reason, for which 
religious prejudice had served as a cloak. They corn,- 
plained that the monks and nuns exercised profes- 
sions to the prejudice of the artisans ; and they de- 
manded of the magistracy that their looms should be 
broken, the religious forbidden to work at trades, and 
their superabundant goods to be distributed among 
the poor. The orators of the band declared in con- 
clusion " that if the magistrates refused to grant 
these requests, the people would disregard their 
orders, displace them by force of arms, and put in 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 114. 

2 Ibid. p. 115. 



THE ANABAPTIST OF MUNSTER. 197 

their stead men trustworthy and loyal, and devoted 
to the interests of the citizens." 1 Alarmed at these 
threats, the magistrates yielded, and promised to 
take every measure satisfactory to the insurgents. 2 
On the 25th May, accordingly, the Friars of St. Francis 
and the nuns of Nizink were ordered to give up their 
looms and accounts. The friars yielded, but the 
ladies stoutly refused. The magistrates, however, 
had all the looms carried away, whilst a mob howled 
at the gates, and agitators, excited by the four re- 
negade priests, ran about the town stirring up the 
people against the religious. "All the worst char 
acters," says the old chronicler, " joined the rioters; 
the curious came to swell the crowd, and people of 
means shut themselves into their houses." 3 For 
Johann Grceten, the orator of the band, now pro- 
claimed that having emptied the strong boxes of the 
monks and nuns, they would despoil all those whose 
fortunes exceeded two thousand ducats. 
\ The rioters next marched to the town hall, where 
the senators sat trembling, and they demanded the 
immediate confirmation of a petition in thirty-four 
articles that had been drawn up for them by their 
leaders. At the same time the mob announced that 
unless their petition was granted they would execute 
its requirements with their own hands. 
1 It asked that the canons of the cathedral should be 
required to pay the debts of the bishop deceased ; 
that criminal jurisdiction should be withdrawn from 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 11 6, 

2 Ibid. p. 117. 

3 Ibid. p. 120. 



i 9 8 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

the hands of the clergy ; that the monks and nuns 
should be forbidden to exercise any manufacture, to 
dry grain, make linen, and rear cattle ; that the 
burden of taxation should be shared by the clergy ; 
that rectors should not be allowed to appoint or dis- 
miss their curates without consent of the parish ; that 
lawsuits should not be allowed to be protracted be- 
yond six weeks ; that beer licences should be abo- 
lished, and tolls on the bridges done away with ; that 
monks and nuns should be allowed free permission to 
leave their religious societies and return to the world ; 
that the property of religious houses should be sold 
and distributed amongst the needy, and that the 
municipality should allow them enough for their sub- 
sistence ; that the Carmelites, the Augustinians, and 
the Dominicans should be suppressed ; that pious 
foundations for masses for the repose of souls should 
be confiscated ; and that people should be allowed to 
marry in Lent and Advent. The magistrates yielded 
at once, and promised to endeavour to get the con- 
sent of the other estates of the diocese to the legalis- 
ing of these articles. 1 

1 On the morrow of the Ascension, 1525, the magis- 
trates closed the gates of the town, and betook 
themselves to the clergy of the chapter to request 
them to accept the thirty-four articles. The canons 
refused at first, but, in fear of the people, they con- 
sented, but wrote to the bishop to tell him what had 
taken place, and to urge him to act with promptitude, 
and not to forget that the rights and privileges of the 
Church were in jeopardy. 

1 Ibid. p. 1 26. 



THE ANABAPTIST OF MUNSTER. 199 

[ It was one of the misfortunes in Germany, as it was 
in France, that the clergy were exempt from taxation. 
This precipitated the Revolution in France, and 
aroused the people against the clergy ; and in 
Germany it served as a strong motive for the adop- 
tion of the Reformation. 

'The canons now fled the town, protesting that 
their signatures had been wrested from them by 
violence, and that they withdrew their consent to the 
articles. The inferior clergy remained at their post, 
and exhibited great energy and decision. They de- 
prived Lubert Causen, minister of St. Martins, one of 
the most zealous fautors of Lutheranism in Mitnster, 
and the head of the reforming party. When his 
parishioners objected, a packet of love-letters he had 
written to several girls in the town, and amongst 
others some to a young woman of respectable position 
whom he had seduced, came to light, and were read 
in the Senate. The reformer had in his letters used 
scriptural texts to excuse and justify the most shame- 
less libertinage. 1 Johann Tante, preacher at St. 
Lambert, and Gottfried Reining, of Ueberwasser, 
were also deprived. As for the Lutheran preacher at 
St. Ludger, Johann Fink, " his mouth was stopped by 
the gift of a fat prebendal stall, and from that 
moment he entirely lost his zeal for the gospel of 
Wittenberg, and never uttered another word against 
the Catholic religion." 2 

\ By means of the mediation of the Archbishop of 
Cologne, a reconciliation was effected. The articles 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 128. 

2 Ibid. 



200 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

were abolished and the signatures annulled, and the 
members of the chapter returned to Miinster, which 
had felt their absence by the decrease in trade, and 
the inconstant people " showed at least as much joy 
at their return as they had shown hatred at their de- 
parture." 1 

There can be no question but that the Reformation 
in Germany was provoked to a large extent by 
abuses and corruptions in the Church. To a much 
larger extent it was a revolt against the Papacy which 
had weakened and numbed the powers of the Empire 
throughout the Middle Ages from the time of the 
Emperor Henry IV. But chiefly as a social and . 
political movement it was the revolt of municipalities 
against the authority of collegiate bodies of clergy 
and the temporal jurisdiction of prince-bishops, or of' 
grand dukes and margraves and electors favouring 
the change because it allowed them at a sweep to con- 
fiscate vast properties and melt down tons of chalices 
and reliquaries into coin. 

In Mtinster lived a draper, Bernhard Knipper- 
dolling by name, who assembled the malcontents in 
his house, or in a tavern, and poured forth in their 
ears his sarcasms against the Pope, the bishops, 
the clergy and the Church. He was well known for 
his dangerous influence, and the bishop, Frederic von 
Wied, arrested him as he passed near his residence at 
Vecht. The people of Miinster, exasperated at the 
news of the captivity of their favourite, obliged the 
magistrates and the chapter to ask the bishop to re- 
lease him. Frederick von Wied yielded with reluct- 
1 Ibid. p. 138- 



THE ANABAPTIST OF MUNSTER. 201 

ance, using these prophetic words, " I consent, but I 
fear that this man will turn everything in Mtinster 
and the whole diocese upside down." Knipperdolling 
left prison, after having taken an oath to keep the 
peace ; but on his return to Mtinster he registered a 
vow that he would terribly revenge his incarceration, 
and would make the diocese pay as many ducats as 
his captivity had cost him hellers. 1 

vThere was another man in Mtinster destined to 
exercise a fatal influence on the unfortunate city. 
This was a priest named Bernard Rottmann. 2 As a 
child he had been chorister at St. Maurice's Church at 
Mtinster, where his exquisite voice had attracted 
notice. He was educated in the choir school, then 
went to Mainz, where in 1524 he took his Master's 
degree, and returning to Miinster, was ordained priest 
in 1529. He was then given the lectureship of the 
church in which, as a boy, he had sung so sweetly. 
He shortly exhibited a leaning towards Lutheranism, 
and the canons of St. Maurice, who had placed great 
hopes on the young preacher, thinking that he acted 
from inexperience and without bad intent, gave him a 
paternal reprimand, and provided him with funds to 
go to the University of Cologne, and study there 
dogmatic and controversial theology ; at the same 
time undertaking to retain Rottmann in the receipt 
of his salary as lecturer, and to this they added a 
handsome pension to assist him in his studies. 
[The young man received this money, and then,. 

instead of going to Cologne, betook himself to 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 143. 

2 Ibid. 148 ; Latin edition, p. 15 17 — 9 ; Dorpius, f. 391 a. 



202 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

Wittenberg, where he attached himself to Melancthon. 
On his return to Miinster, the canons, unaware of the 
fraud that had been played upon them, reinstated 
Rottmann in the pulpit. He was too crafty to publish 
his new tenets in his discourses, and thus to insure 
the loss of his situation, but he employed his secret 
influence in society to spread Lutheranism. After a 
while, when he considered his party strong enough to 
support him, he threw off the mask, and preached 
boldly against the priests and the bishops, and cer- 
tain doctrines of the Catholic Church. The more 
violent he became in his attacks, the more personal 
and caustic in his language, the greater grew the 
throng of people to hear him. Then he preached 
against Confession, which he called " the disturber of 
consciences," and contrasted it with Justification by 
Faith only, which set consciences at ease ; he preached 
against good works, against the obligation to observe 
the moral law, and assured his hearers that grace was 
freely imputed to them, live as they liked, and that 
the Gospel afforded them entire freedom from all 
restraints. " The shameless dissolution which now 
began to spread through the town," says Kerssen- 
broeck, " proved that the mob adopted the belief in 
the impunity of sin ; all those who were ruined in 
pocket, hoping to get the possessions of others, joined 
the party of innovators, and Rottmann was extolled 
by -them to the skies." 1 

(The Senate forbade the citizens to attend Rott- 
mann's sermons, but their orders were disregarded. 
The populace declared that Master Bernard was the 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 152. 



THE ANABAPTIST OF MUNSTER. 203 

only preacher of the true Gospel, and they covered 
with slander and abuse those who strove to oppose 
his seductive doctrine. " Some of the episcopal 
councillors, however," says the historian, " favoured 
the innovator. The private secretary of the 
bishop, Leonhard Mosz, encouraged him secretly, 
and promised him his support in the event of 
danger." 1 

\ But the faithful clergy informed the bishop of the 
scandal, and before Mosz and others could interfere, 
a sentence of deprivation was pronounced against 
him. 

Rottmann, startled by this decisive measure, wrote 
a series of letters to Frederick von Wied, which have 
been preserved by Kerssenbroeck, in which he pre- 
tended that he had been calumniated before " the best 
and most just of bishops," and excused himself, in- 
stead of boldly and frankly announcing his secession 
from the Catholic Church. In reply, the bishop 
ordered him to quit Mtinster, and charged his coun- 
cillors to announce to him that his case would be 
submitted to the next synod. Rottmann then wrote 
to the councillors a letter which exhibits his duplicity 
in a clearer light. Frederick von Wied, hearing of 
this letter, ordered the recalcitrant preacher to quit 
the convent adjoining the church of St. Maurice, and 
to leave the town. Rottmann thereupon took refuge 
in the house of Knippcrdolling and his companions. 
Under the protection of these turbulent men, the 
young preacher assumed a bolder line, and wrote to 
the bishop demanding a public discussion, and an- 
1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 152. 



2o 4 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

nouncing that shortly his doctrine would be published 
in a pamphlet, and thus be popularised. 

'.On the 23rd of January, 1532, Rottmann's profession 
of faith appeared, addressed in the form of a letter to 
the clergy of Miinster. 1 Like all the professions of 
faith of the period, it consisted chiefly of a string of 
negations, with a few positive statements retained 
from the Catholic creed on God, the Incarnation, Sec. 
He denied the special authority of the priesthood, re- 
duced the Sacraments to signs, going thereby beyond 
Luther ; rejected doctrines of the Eucharistic Sacri- 
fice, Purgatory, the intercession of saints, and the use 
of images, pilgrimages, vows, benedictions, and the 
like. It would certainly have been more appropriately 
designated a Confession of Disbelief. This pamphlet 
was widely circulated amongst the people, and the 
party of Lutheran malcontents, headed by Knipper- 
dolling, and Herman Bispink, a coiner and forger of 
title-deeds, grew in power, in numbers, and in audacity. 
On the 23rd of February, 1532, Knipperdolling and 
his associates assembled the populace early, and 
carried Rottmann in triumph to the church of St. 
Lambert. Finding the doors shut, they mounted the 
preacher on a wooden pulpit before the bone T house. 
The Reformer then addressed the people on the 
necessity of proclaiming evangelical liberty and of 
destroying idolatry ; of overthrowing images and the 
Host preserved in the tabernacles. His doctrine 
might be summed up in two words : liberty for the 
Evangelicals to do what they liked, and compulsion 

1 Ibid. p. 165 et seq.; Latin edition, Mencken, p. 1520 — 8 ; 
Sleidan, French tr., p. 406. 



THE ANABAPTIST OF MUNSTER. 205 

for the Catholics. The sermon produced a tremendous 
effect ; before it was concluded the rioters rushed 
towards the different churches, burst open the doors, 
tore down the altars, reliquaries, statues ; and the 
Sacrament was taken from the tabernacles and tram- 
pled under foot. The cathedral alone, defended by 
massive gates, escaped their fury. 1 

v Proud of this achievement, the insurgents defied all 
•authority, secular and ecclesiastical, and installed 
Bernhard Rottmann as preacher and pastor of the 
Evangelical religion in St. Lambert's Church. "Thence- 
forth," says the Minister contemporary historian, "it 
may well be understood that they did not limit them- 
selves to simple tumults, but that murders, pillage, 
and the overthrow of all public order followed. The 
success of this first enterprise had rendered the leaders 
masters of the city." 

v Bishop Frederick von Wied felt that his power was 
at an end. He was a man with no very strong religi- 
ous zeal or moral courage. He resigned his dignity 
in the sacristy of the church of Werne, reserving to. 
himself a yearly income of 2,000 florins. Duke Eric 
of Brunswick, Prince of Grubenhagen, Bishop of 
Paderborn and Osnabriick, was elected in his room. 
The nomination of Eric irritated the Lutheran party. 
He was a man zealous for his religion, and with 
powerful relations. Rottmann at once sent him his 
twenty-nine articles, and the artisans of Miinster, who 
had embraced the cause of Rottmann, handed in a 
petition to the magistrates (April 16th, 1532) to re- 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 185 ; Bullinger, " Adversus Anabaptist." 
lib. ii. c. 8. 



206 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

quest that compulsion might be used to force every- 
one to become Lutheran, " because it seems to us," 
said they, " that this doctrine is in all points and en- 
tirely conformable to the Gospel, whilst that which is 
taught by the rest of the clergy is absurd, and ought 
to be rejected." 1 The bishop-elect wrote to the 
magistrates, insisting on the dismissal of Rottmann, 
but in their answer they not only declined to obey, 
but offered an apology for his conduct. 

'The bishop wrote again, but received no answer. 
Wishing to use every means of conciliation, before 
adopting forcible measures, he sent a deputation to 
Mlinster to demand the expulsion of the preacher, 
but without success. 
\.The people, becoming more insubordinate, deter- 
mined to take possession of other churches. One of 
the most important is the church of Unsere Lieb-frau, 
or Uebenvasser, a church whose beautiful tower and 
choir attract the admiration of the traveller visiting 
Miinster. This church and parish depended on the 
convent of Ueberwasser ; the rector was a man of 
zeal and power, a Dr. Martin, who was peculiarly ob- 
noxious to the Lutheran party. A deputation was 
sent to the abbess, Ida von Merfelt, to insist on the 
dismissal of the rector and the substitution of an 
Evangelical preacher. 2 The lady was a woman of 
courage ; she recommended the deputation to return 
to their shops and to attend to their own business,, 
and announced that Dr. Martin should stay at his 
post ; and stay he did, for a time. 

1 Kerssenbroeck, pp. 189-90. 

2 Ibid. p. 203. 



THE ANABAPTIST OF MUNSTER. 207- 

v The bishop was resolved to try force of arms, when 
suddenly he died, May 9th, 1532, after having drunk 
a goblet of wine. Several writers of the period state 
that it was poisoned. A modern historian says he 
died of excess of drink — on what authority I do not 
know. l He had brought down upon himself the dis- 
like of the Lutherans for having vigorously suppressed 
the reforming movement in Paderborn. The history 
of that movement in this other Westphalian diocese 
is too suggestive to be passed over. In 1527 the 
Elector John Frederick of Saxony passed through 
Paderborn and ordered his Lutheran preachers to 
address the people in the streets through the windows 
of the house in which he lodged, as the clergy refused 
them the use of the churches. Next year the agita- 
tion began by a quarrel between some of the young 
citizens and the servants of the chapter, and ended in 
the plundering and devastation of the cathedral and 
■ the residences of the canons. The leader of the 
Evangelical party in Paderborn was Johann Molner of 
Buren, a man who had been expelled from the city in 
{ 1 5 3 1 for murder and adultery ; he left, taking with him 
as his mistress thewife of the man he had murdered, and 
retired to Soest, " where," says a contemporary writer, 
Daniel von Soest, "he did not remain satisfied with this 
woman only."' He returned to Paderborn as a burn- 
ing and shining gospel light, and led the iconoclastic 
riot. Duke Philip of Grubenhagen supported his 
brother, and the town was forced to pay 2,000 gulden 
for the damage done, and to promise to pay damages 

1 Stiirc, " Gerchichte v. Osnabriick." Osnab. 1826, pt. iiL 
p. 25. 



208 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

if any further mischief took place, and this so cooled 
the zeal of the citizens of Paderborn for the Gospel 
that it died out. 1 

\,The chapter retired to Ludwigshausen for the pur- 
pose of electing the successor to Bishop Eric, who 
had only occupied the see three months ; their choice 
fell on Francis von Waldeck, Bishop of Minden, and 
then of Osnabruck. The choice was not fortunate ; 
it was dictated by the exigencies of the times, which 
required a man of rank and power to occupy the 
vacant throne, so as to reduce the disorder by force of 
arms. Francis of Waldeck was all this, but the 
canons were not at that time aware that he had him- 
self strong leanings towards Lutheranism ; and after 
he became Bishop of Mlinster he would have readily 
changed the religion of the place, had it not been that 
such a proceeding would, under the circumstances, 
have involved the loss of his income as prince-bishop. 
Later, when the disturbances were at an end, he pro- 
posed to the Estates the establishment of Lutheranism 
and the suppression of Catholicism, as we shall see in 
the sequel. He even joined the Smalkald union of 
the Protestant princes against the Catholics in 1 544. 

\With sentiments so favourable to the Reform, the 
new bishop would have yielded everything to the 
agitators, had they not assumed a threatening attitude, 
and menaced his temporal position and revenue, 
which were the only things connected with the office 
for which he cared. 

1 Vehse, "Geschichte der Deutschen Hofe." Hamburg, 
1859, vol. xlvii. p. 4-6. Bessen, "Geschichte v. Paderborn; 
Paderb. 1820, vol. ii. p. 33. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 209 

^The inferior clergy of Miinster wrote energetically 
to him on his appointment, complaining of the inno- 
vations which succeeded each other with rapidity in 
the town. " The Lutheran party," said they in this 
letter, "are growing daily more invasive and insolent," 
and they implored the bishop to protect their rights 
and liberty of conscience against the tyranny of the 
new party, who, not content with worshipping God in 
their own way, refused toleration to others, outraged 
their feelings by violating all they held most sacred, 
and disturbed their services by unseemly interrup- 
tions. 

\ Francis of Waldeck renewed the orders of his 
predecessor. The senate acknowledged the receipt 
of his letter, and promised to answer it on a future 
occasion. 

VHowever, the warmest partisans of Rottmann were 
resolved to carry matters to a climax, and at once to 
overthrow both the episcopal and the civil authority. 
Knipperdolling persuaded the butcher Modersohn 
and the skinner Redekker that, as provosts of their 
guilds, they were entitled to convene the members of 
their trades without the intervention of the magis- 
trates. These two men accordingly convoked the 
people for the ist July. 1 The assembly was numer- 
ously attended, and opened tumultuously. When 
silence was obtained, a certain Johann Windemuller 
rose and proclaimed the purpose of the convention. 
"(The affair is one of importance," said he ; " we have 
to maintain the glory of God, our eternal welfare, the 
happiness of all our fellow-citizens, and the develop- 
1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 207 ; Dorpius, f. 391 b. 392. 



2io HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

ment of our franchises ; all these things depend on 
the sacred ecclesiastical liberty announced to us by 
the worthy Rottmann. We must conclude an alli- 
ance against the oppressors of the Gospel, that the 
doctrine of Rottmann, which is incontestably the true 
one, may be protected." These words produced such 
enthusiasm, that the audience shouted with one voice 
that " they would defend Rottmann and his doctrine 
to their last farthing, and the last drop of their blood." 
Some of those present, by their silence, expressed 
their displeasure, but a draper named Johann Menne- 
mann had the courage to raise his voice against the 
proposal. A furious band at once attacked him with 
their fists, crying out that the enemies of the pure 
Gospel must be destroyed ; " already the bold draper 
was menaced with their daggers, when one of his 
friends succeeded in effecting his escape from the 
popular rage." However, he was obliged to appear 
before the heads of the guilds and answer for his 
opposition. Mennemann replied, that in weighty 
matters concerning the welfare of the common- 
wealth, tumultuous proceedings were not likely 
to produce good resolutions, and that he advised 
the separation of the corporations, that the ques- 
tions might be maturely considered and properly 
weighed. 1 

\The corporations of trades now appointed twenty- 
six individuals, in addition to the provosts, to decide 
on measures adapted to carry out the resolution. 
This committee decided " that one religion alone 
should be taught in the town for the future and for 
1 Ibid. p. 208. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 211 

ever after ;" and that " if any opposition was offered by 
the magistrates, the whole body of the citizens should 
be appealed to." x 

.These decisions were presented to the senate on the 
nth July, which replied that they were willing not to 
separate themselves from evangelical truth, but that 
they were not yet satisfied on which side it was to be 
found, and that they would ask the bishop to send 
them learned theologians who should investigate the 
matter. 

\ This reply irritated Rottmann, Knipperdolling, and 
their followers. On the 12th July fresh messengers 
were sent to the Rath (senate) to know whether it 
might be reckoned upon. The answer was equivocal. 
A third deputation insisted on an answer of "Yes" or 
"No," and threatened a general rising of the people un- 
less their demands were acceded to.' 2 The magistrates, 
in alarm, promised their adhesion to the wishes of the 
insurgents, who demanded at once that " sincere 
preachers of the pure Gospel" should be installed in 
every church of Miinster. The councillors accord- 
ingly issued orders to all the clergy of the city to 
adopt the articles of Bernard Rottmann, or to refute 
them by scriptural arguments, or they must expect 
the Council to proceed against them with the ex- 
tremest rigour of the law. 

Then, to place the seal on their cowardly conduct, 
they wrote to the prince-bishop on the 25th, to 
excuse themselves of complicity in the institution 
of Rottmann, but at the same time they undertook 
the defence of the Reformer, and assured the bishop 
1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 209. 2 Ibid. pp. 210, 211. 



212 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

that his doctrine was sound and irrefutable. At the 
same time they opened a communication with the 
Landgrave Philip of Hesse, asking that bulwark of 
the Reformation to protect them. Philip wrote back, 
promising his intervention, but warning them not to 
make the Gospel an excuse for revolt and disorder, 
and not to imagine that Christian liberty allowed 
them to seize on all the property of the Church. At 
the same time he wrote to the prince-bishop to urge 
upon him not to deprive the good and simple people 
of Minister of their evangelical preachers. 1 

In the meantime the seditious members of the 
town guilds grew impatient ; and on the 6th August 
they sent a deputation to the town council remind- 
ing it of its promise, and insisting on the immediate 
deprivation of all the Catholic clergy. The magis- 
trates sought to gain time, but the deputation 
threatened them with the people taking the law into 
their own hands, rejecting the authority of the council, 
and electing another set of magistrates. 
x "The Rath, on hearing this," says Kerssenbroeck, 
''■ were filled with alarm, and they considered it 
expedient to yield, in part at least, to the popu- 
lace, and to deprive the clergy of their rights, rather 
than to expose themselves rashly to the greatest 
dangers." 2 

•- They resolved therefore to forbid the Catholic clergy 
the use of the pulpits of the churches, and to address 
the people in any form. This was done at once, and 
all ceremonies "contrary to the pure word of God" 
were abolished, and the faithful in the different parishes 
1 Kerssenbroeck, pp. 212-23. 2 Ibid. p. 227. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 213 

were required to receive and maintain the new pastors 
commissioned by the burgomaster and corporation to 
minister to them in things divine. 

\.On the 1 oth August, a crowd, headed by Rottmann, 
the preacher Brixius, and Knipperdolling, fell upon 
the churches and completed the work of devastation 
which had been begun in February. The Cathedral 
and the Church of Ueberwasser alone escaped their 
Vandalism, because the fanatics were afraid of arous- 
ing too strong an opposition. The same day the 
celebration of mass and communion in one kind were 
forbidden under the severest penalties ; the priests 
were driven out of their churches, and Rottmann, 
Brixius, Glandorp, Rolle, Wertheim, and Gottfried 
Ninnhoven, Lutheran preachers, were intruded in their 
room. 1 

\The peace among these new apostles of the true 
Gospel was, however, subject to danger. Pastor 
Brixius had fallen in love with the sister of Pastor 
Rottmann, and the appearance of the girl proved to 
every one that the lovers had not waited for the cere- 
mony of marriage. Rottmann insisted on this brother 
pastor marrying the young woman to repair the 
scandal. But no sooner was the bride introduced 
into the parsonage of St. Martin, of which Brixius was 
in possession, than the first wife of the evangelical 
minister arrived in Miinster with her two children. 
Brixius was obliged to send away the new wife, but a 
coldness ensued between him and Rottmann ; " how- 
ever, fearing to cause dissension amongst their adher- 

1 Ibid. pp. 228-34. 



214 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

ents by an open quarrel, they came to some arrange- 
ment, and Brixius retained his situation." 1 

These acts of violence and scandals had inspired 
many of the citizens with alarm. Those who were 
able sent their goods out of the town ; the nuns of 
Ueberwasser despatched their title-deeds and sacred 
vessels to a place of safety. Several of the wealthy 
citizens and senators, who would not give up their 
religion, .deserted Minister, and settled elsewhere. 
The two burgomasters, Ebroin Drost and Willebrand 
Plonies, resigned their offices and left the city never to 
return. 2 The provosts of the guilds next insisted on 
the' severe repression of all Catholic usages and the 
performance of sacraments by the priests ; they went 
further, and insisted on belief in the sacrifice of the 
altar and adoration of the Host being made penal. 
The clergy wrote to the bishop imploring his aid, and 
assuring him that their position was daily becoming 
more intolerable ; but Francis of Waldeck recom- 
mended patience, and promised his aid when it lay in 
his power to assist them. 

\ On the 17th September, 1532, he convoked the nobles 
of the principality at Wollbeck, gave them an account 
of the condition of Miinster, and conjured them to 
assist him in suppressing the rebellion. 3 The nobles 
replied, that before adopting violent measures, it would 
be advisable to attempt a reconciliation. Eight 
commissioners were chosen from amongst the barons,, 
who wrote to the magistrates, and requested them to 
send their deputies to Wollbeck on Monday, Septem- 

1 Kerssenbroeck, pp. 228, 229. 2 Ibid. p. 230. 

3 Ibid. p. 248 e( seq. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 215 

ber 23rd, "so as to come to some decision on what is 
necessary for the welfare of the republic." The envoys 
of the city appeared, and after the opening of the 
assembly, the grand marshal of the diocese described 
the condition of the city, and declared that if it pursued 
its course of disobedience, the nobility were prepared 
to assist their prince in re-establishing order. The 
delegates were given eight days to frame an answer. 
The agitation in Miinster during these days was 
great. The evangelical preachers lost no time in 
exciting the people. The deputies returned to the 
conference with a vague answer that the best way to 
settle the differences would be to submit them to 
competent and enlightened judges ; and so the 
matter dropped. 

1 The bishop's officers now captured a herd of fat 
cattle belonging to some citizens of Miinster, which 
were on their way to Cologne, and refused to surrender 
them till the preachers of disaffection were sent 
away, 1 

, The party of Rottmann and Knipperdolling now re- 
quired the town council to raise 500 soldiers for the 
defence of the town, should it be attacked by the 
prince-bishop — to strike 2000 ducats in copper for the 
payment of the mercenaries, such money to circulate 
in Miinster alone — to order the sentinels to forbid 
egress to the Catholic clergy, should they attempt to fly 
— and to impose on the Catholic clergy a tax of 4000 
florins a month for the support of the troops. As the 
clergy had been deprived of their benefices, forbidden 
to preach and minister the sacraments, this additional 
1 Kerssenbroeck, pp. 268-9. 



2i6 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

act of persecution was intolerable in its injustice. 
The senate accepted these requisitions with some 
abatement — the number of soldiers was reduced to 
300. 1 

v The bishop, finding that the confiscation of the oxen 
had not produced the required results, adopted another 
expedient which proved equally ineffectual, He closed 
all the roads by his cavalry, declared the city in a state 
of blockade, and forbade the peasantry taking pro- 
visions into Miinster. The artizans then marched out 
and took the necessary food ; they paid for it, but 
threatened the peasants with spoliation without repay- 
ment, unless they frequented the market with their 
goods as usual. This menace produced its effect ; 
Miinster continued to be provisioned as before. 2 
\Proud of their success, the. innovators attacked 
Ueberwasser Church, and ordered the abbess to dis- 
miss the Catholic clergy who ministered there, and to 
replace them by Gospel preachers. She declined 
peremptorily, and the mob then drove the priests out 
of the church and presbytery, and instituted Lutherans 
in their place. 3 

\ Notwithstanding the decrees of the senate, the 
priests continued their exhortations and their minis- 
trations in such churches as the Evangelicals were un- 
able to supply with pastors, of whom there was a 
lack. Brixius, the bigamist minister of St. Martin's, 
having found in one of them a monk preaching to a 
crowd of women, rushed up into the pulpit, crying out 
that the man was telling them lies ; " but," says 

1 Ibid. p. 279 et seq. 2 Ibid. p. 283 et seq. 

3 Ibid. pp. 284, 285. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 217 

Kerssenbroeck, " the devotees surrounded the unfortu- 
nate orator, beat him with their fists, slippers, wooden 
shoes and staves, so that he fled the church, his face 
and body black and blue." Probably these women 
bore him a grudge also for his treatment of Rott- 
mann's sister, which was no secret. " Furious at this, 
he went next day to exhibit the traces of the combat 
to the senate, entreating them to revenge the outrage 
he had received — he a minister of the Holy Gospel ; 
but, for the first time, the magistrates showed some 
sense, and declared that they would not meddle in the 
matter, because the guilty persons were too numerous, 
and that some indulgence ought to be shown to the 
fair sex." 1 

V The town council now sent deputies to the Pro- 
testant princes, Dukes Ernest and Francis of Liine- 
burg, the Landgrave Philip of Hesse, and Count 
Philip of Waldeck, brother of the prince-bishop, to 
promise the adhesion of the city to the Smalkald 
union, and to request their assistance against their 
bishop. The situation was singular. The city sought 
assistance of the Protestant union against their prince, 
desiring to overthrow his power, under the plea that 
he was a Catholic bishop. And the bishop, at heart 
a Lutheran, and utterly indifferent to his religious 
position and responsibilities, was determined to coerce 
his subjects into obedience, that he might retain his 
rank and revenue as prince, intending, when the city 
returned to its obedience, to shake off his episcopal 
office, to Lutheranize his subjects, and remain their 
sovereign prince, and possibly transform the ecclesi- 
1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 2>3°- 



218 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

astical into a hereditary principality, the appanage 
of a family of which he would be the founder. He 
had already provided himself with a concubine, Anna 
Polmann, by whom he had children. 
v Whilst the senate was engaged in treating with the 
Protestant princes, negotiations continued with the 
bishop, at the diets convoked successively at Dulmen 
and Wollbeck, but they were as fruitless as before. 
The deputies separated on the 9th December, agree- 
ing to meet again on the 21st of the same month. 

At this time there arrived in Minister a formal re- 
futation of the theses of Rottmann, by John of 
Deventer, provincial of the Franciscans at Cologne. 1 
The magistrates had repeatedly complained that " the 
refusal of the Catholics to reply to Bernard Rottmann 
was the sole cause of all the evil." At the same time 
they had forbidden the Catholic clergy to preach or 
to make use of the press in Mtinster. This answer 
came like a surprise upon them. It was carried by 
the foes of the clergy to the magistrates. The news of 
the appearance of this counterblast created the 
wildest excitement. " The citizens, assembled in 
great crowds, ran about the streets to hear what was 
being said. Some announced that the victory would 
remain with Rottmann, others declared that he would 
never recover the blow." 

\ The provosts of the guilds hastily drew up a petition 
to the senate to expel the clergy from the town, and to 
confiscate their goods ; but the magistrates refused to 
comply with this requisition, which would have at 
once stirred up civil war. 2 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 332. 2 Ibid. pp. 335-7- 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 219 

Rottmann mounted the pulpit on St. Andrew's day, 
and declared that on the following Sunday he would 
refute the arguments of John of Deventer. Accord- 
ingly, on the day appointed, he preached to an im- 
mense crowd, taking for his text the words of St. Paul 
(Rom. xiii. 12), "The night is far spent, the day is at 
hand." The sermon was not an answer to the 
arguments of John of Deventer, but a furious attack 
upon the Pope and Catholicism. Knipperdolling 
also informed the people that he would rather have 
his children killed and cooked and served up for 
dinner than surrender his evangelical principles and 
return to the errors of the past. 1 

VOn the 2 1st December, 1532, Francis of Waldeck 
assembled the diet of the principality, and asked its 
advice as to the advisability of proclaiming war 
against Miinster, should the city persist in its ob- 
stinacy. 2 The clergy and nobles replied that, accord- 
ing to immemorial custom, the prince must engage in 
war at his own cost, and that they were too heavily 
burdened with taxes for the Turkish war to enable 
them to undertake fresh charges. Francis of Waldeck 
reminded them that he was obliged to pay a pension 
of 2000 florins to his predecessor, Frederick von Wied, 
and he affirmed that he also was not in a condition to 
have recourse to arms. 

\ Whilst the prince, his barons and canons were de- 
liberating, Rottmann had assumed the ecclesiastical 
dictatorship in the cathedral city, and had ordered, on 
his sole authority, the suppression of the observance 
of fast-days. 

1 Ibid. p. 338. " Ibid. p. 340 et seq. 



220 HISTORIC ODDJTIES. 

\ The spirit of opposition and protestation that had 
been evoked already manifested itself in strange ex- 
cesses. " Some of the Evangelicals refused to have 
the bread put into their mouths at Communion," says 
Kerssenbroeck, " but insisted on helping themselves 
from the table, or they stained themselves in taking 
long draughts at the large chalices. It is even said 
that some placed the bread in large soup tureens, and 
poured the wine upon it, and took it out with spoons 
and forks, so that they might communicate in both 
kinds at one and the same moment." 1 
\ The Reformer of Miinster began to entertain and 
to express doubts as to the validity of the baptism of 
infants, which he considered had not the warrant of 
Holy Scripture. Melancthon wrote urgently to him, 
imploring him not to create dissensions in the 
Evangelical Church by disturbing the arrangement 
many wise men had agreed upon. " We have enemies 
enough," added Melancthon ; " they will be rejoiced 
to see us tearing each other and destroying one an- 
other. ... I speak with good intention, and I take the 
liberty of giving my advice, because I am devoted to 
you and to the Church." 2 

; Luther wrote as well, not to Rottmann, but to the 
magistrates of Minister, praising their love of the 
Gospel, and urging them to beware of being drawn 
away by the damnable errors of the Sacramentarians, 
Zwinglians, aliorumqiie schwermerorum? The sena- 
tors received this apostolic epistle with the utmost 
respect and reverence imaginable; they communicated 
it to Rottmann and his colleagues, and ordered them 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 347. " Ibid. p. 348. 3 Ibid. p. 349. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 221 

to obey it. But the senate had long lost its authority ; 
and this injunction was disregarded, 1 " Disorder and 
infidelity made progress ; the idle, rogues, spend- 
thrifts, thieves, and ruined persons swelled the crowd 
of Evangelists." 2 

\ However, it was not enough to have introduced the 
new religion, to satisfy the Evangelicals the Catholics 
must be completely deprived of the exercise of their 
religion. In spite of every hindrance, mass had been 
celebrated every Sunday in the cathedral. All the. 
parish churches had been deprived of their priests, but 
the minster remained in the hands of the Catholics. 
As Christmas approached, many men and women pre- 
pared by fasting, alms, and confession, to make their 
communion at the cathedral on the festival of the 
Nativity. 

\ The magistrates, hearing of their design, forbade 
them communicating, offering, as an excuse, that it 
would cause scandal to the partisans of the Reform. 
They also published a decree forbidding baptisms to 
be performed elsewhere than in the parish churches ; 
so as to force the faithful to bring their children to 
the ministrations of men whom they regarded with 
aversion as heretics and apostates. 3 
V. No envoys from the capital attended the reunion of 
the chambers at Wollbeck on the 20th December. 
But Miinster sent a letter expressing a hope that the 
difference between the city and the prince might be 
terminated by mediation. 

\ This letter gave the diet a chance of escaping from 

its very difficult position of enforcing the rule of the 

1 Kerssenbrceck, p. 351. -Ibid. p. 351. 3 Ibid. p. 353. 



522 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

prince without money to pay the soldiers. The diet 
undertook to lay the suggestion before the prince- 
bishop, and to transmit his reply to the envoys of 
Minister. 

\ Francis of Waldeck then quitted his diocese of 
Minden, and betook himself to Telgte, 1 a little town 
about four miles from Miinster, where he was to 
receive the oath of allegiance and homage of his 
subjects in the principality. The estates assembled 
at Wollbeckj and all the leading nobles and clergy of 
the diocese hastened to Telgte and assembled around 
their sovereign on the same day. A letter was at 
once addressed to the senate of MUnster by the 
assembled estates, urging it to send deputies to 
Telgte, the following morning, at eight o'clock, to 
labour together with them at the re-establishment of 
peace. 

V The deputies did not appear ; the senate addressed 
to the diet, instead, a letter of excuses. The estates 
at once replied that in the interest of peace, they re- 
gretted the obstinacy with which the senate had re- 
fused to send deputies to Telgte ; but that this had 
not prevented them from supplicating the bishop to 
yield to their wishes ; and that they were glad to 
announce that he was ready to submit the mutual 
differences to the arbitration of two princes of the 
Empire, one to be named by himself, the other by the 
city of Miinster. And until the arbitration took place, 
the prince-bishop would provisionally suspend all 
measures of severity, on condition that the ancient 
usages should be restored in the churches, the 
1 Ibid. p. 354 et seq. Sleidan, French tr. p. 407. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 223 

preachers should cease to innovate, and that the im- 
prisoned vassals of the bishop should be released. 
\ This missive was sent into the town on the 25th ; 
the magistrates represented to the bearer "that it 
would be scandalous to occupy themselves with 
temporal affairs on Christmas-day," and on this pre- 
text they persuaded him to remain till the morrow in 
Miinster. Then orders were given for the gates of the 
town to be closed, and egress to be forbidden to every 

one. 

Having taken these precautions, the magistrates 
assembled the provosts of the guilds, and held with 
them a conference, which terminated shortly before 
nine o'clock the same evening ; after which the sub- 
altern officers of the senate were sent round to rap at 
every door, and order the citizens to assemble at mid- 
night, before the town-hall. A nocturnal expedition 
had been resolved upon ; but the movement in the 
town had excited the alarm of the Catholics, who, think- 
ing that a general massacre of those who adhered to 
the old religion was in contemplation, hid themselves 
in drains and cellars and chimneys. 

Arms were brought out of the arsenal, cannons 
were mounted, waggons were laden with powder, shot, 
beams, planks and ladders. At the appointed hour, 
the crowd, armed in various fashions, assembled before 
the Rath-haus. 1 The magistrates and provosts then 
selected six hundred trusty Evangelicals, and united 
them to a band of three hundred mercenaries and a 
small troop of horse. The rest were dispersed upon 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 358 et seq. Sleidan, French tr. p. 408. 
Sleidan also gives the number as 900 ; Dorpius, f. 392 b. 



224 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

the ramparts and were recommended to keep watch ; 
then it was announced to the party in marching order 
that they were to hasten stealthily to Telgte and 
capture the prince-bishop, his councillors, the barons, 
and all the members of the estates then assembled in 
that little town. 

\ However, the diet, surprised at not seeing their 
messenger return, conceived a slight suspicion. 
Whether he feared that his person was in danger so 
near Minister is not known, but fortunately for him- 
self, the prince, that same evening, left Telgte for his 
castle of I burg. The members of the diet, after long 
waiting, sent some men along the road to the capital 
to ascertain whether their messenger was within 
sight. These men returned, saying that the gates of 
Miinster were closed and that no one was to be seen 
stirring. 

The fact was singular, not to say suspicious ; and a 
troop of horse was ordered to make a reconnaissance 
in the direction of Miinster. It was already late at 
night, so, having given the order, the members of the 
diet retired to their beds. The horse soldiers beat the 
country, found all quiet, withdrew some planks from 
a bridge over the Werse, between Telgte and Miinster, 
to intercept the passage, and then returned to their 
quarters, for the night was bitterly cold. On sur- 
mounting a hill, crowned by a gibbet, they, however 
turned once more and looked over the plain towards 
the city. A profound silence reigned ; but a number 
of what they believed to be will-o'-the-wisps flitted 
here and there over the dark ground. As, according 
to popular superstition in Westphalia, these little 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 225 

lights are to be seen in great abundance at Yuletide, 
the horsemen paid no attention to them, but con- 
tinued their return. These lights, mistaken for marsh 
fires, were in fact the burning matches of the arque- 
buses carried by those engaged in the sortie. On 
their return to Telgte, the horse soldiers retired to 
their quarters, and in half-an-hour all the inhabitants 
of the town were fast asleep. 

\ Meanwhile, the men of Minister advanced, replaced 
the bridge over the Werse, traversed the plain, and 
reached Telgte at two o'clock in the morning. They 
at once occupied all the streets, according to a plan 
concerted beforehand, then invaded the houses, and 
captured the members of the diet, clergy, nobles and 
commons. Three only of the cathedral chapter es- 
caped in their night shirts with bare feet across the 
frozen river Ems. The Miinsterians, having laid their 
hands on all the money, jewels, seals, and gold chains 
they could find, retreated as rapidly as they had ad- 
vanced, carrying off with them their captives and the 
booty, but disappointed in not having secured the 
person of the prince. They entered the cathedral city 
in triumph on the morning of the 26th December, 
highly elated at their success, and nothing doubting 
that with such hostages in their hands, they would be 
able to dictate their own terms to the sovereign. 

\But the expedition of Telgte had made a great 
sensation in the empire. Francis of Waldeck ad- 
dressed himself to all the members of the Germanic 
body, and appealed especially to his metropolitan, the 
Elector of Cologne, for assistance, and also to the 

Dukes of Cleves and Gueldres. The elector wrote at 

p 



226 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

once to Minister in terms the most pressing, because 
some of his own councillors were among the prisoners. 
He received an evasive answer. The Protestant 
princes of the Smalkald league even addressed letters 
to the senate, blaming energetically their high-handed 
proceeding. Philip Melancthon also wrote a letter of 
mingled remonstrance and entreaty. 1 The only result 
of their appeals was the restoration to the prisoners of 
their money and the jewels taken from them. 
\john von Wyck, syndic of Bremen, was despatched 
by the senate of Minister to the Landgrave Philip of 
Hesse, to ask him to undertake the office of mediator 
between them and their prince. The Landgrave 
readily accepted the invitation, and Francis of 
Waldeck was equally ready to admit his mediation, as 
he was himself, as has been already stated, a Lutheran 
at heart. The people of Minister, finding that the 
bishop was eager for a pacific settlement, insisted on 
the payment of the value of the oxen he had con- 
fiscated, as a preliminary, before the subject of 
differences was entered upon. The prince-bishop 
consented, paid 450 florins, and allowed the Landgrave 
of Hesse to draw up sixteen articles of treaty, which 
met with the approval of both the senate and him- 
self. 
\ The terms of the agreement were as follows : 2 — 
I. The prince-bishop was to offer no violence to the 
inhabitants of Miinster in anything touching religion. 
"The people of Miinster shall keep the pure Word of 
God," said the article ; " it shall be preached to them,. 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 368. 2 Ibid. p. 392 et seq. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 227 

without any human additions by their preachers, in 
the six parish churches. These same preachers shall 
minister the sacraments and order their services and 
ceremonies as they please. The citizens shall submit 
in religious matters to the judgment of the magistrates 
alone, till the questions at issue are decided by a 
General Council." 

'■• II. The Catholics were to exercise their religion 
freely in the cathedral and in the capitular churches 
not included in the preceding article, zintil Divine 
Providence should order otherwise. The Lutheran 
ministers were forbidden to attack the Catholics, their 
dogmas and rights, unless the Word of God imperiously 
required it ; — a clause opening a door to any amount 
of abuse. As the speciality of Protestantism of every 
sort consists in negation, it would be impossible for an 
Evangelical pastor to hold his position without de- 
nouncing what he disbelieved. 

x Artice III. interdicted mutual recriminations. 
Article IV., in strange contradiction with Article I., 
declared that the town of Minister should obey the 
prince-bishop as legitimate sovereign in matters 
spiritual and temporal. The bishop in the Vth 
Article promised to respect the privileges of the 
subject. 

The Vlth Article forbade any one making an 
arbitrary use of the Word of God to justify refusal of 
obedience to the magistrates. Article VII. reserved 
to the clergy their revenues, with the exception of the 
six parish churches, of which the revenues were to be 
employed for the maintenance of the Evangelical 
pastors. By the VUIth Article the senate promised 



\ 



228 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

not to interfere with the collation to benefices not in 
their hands by right. The IXth Article allowed the 
citizens to deprive their pastors in the Lutheran 
churches, without the intervention of the bishop. The 
rest of the Articles secured a general amnesty, per- 
mission to the refugees to return, and to the im- 
prisoned members of the diet to obtain their free- 
dom. 

\This treaty was fair enough in its general provisions. 
If, as was the case, a large number of the citizens were 
disposed to adopt Lutheranism, no power on earth had 
any right to constrain them., and they might justly 
claim the free exercise of their religion. But there 
were suspicious clauses inserted in the ist and 2nd 
Articles which pointed to the renewal of animosity 
and the re-opening of the whole question. 

This treaty was signed on the 14th February, 1533, 
by Philip of Hesse, as mediator, Francis, Count of 
Waldeck, Prince'and Bishop of Mtinster, the members 
of chapter, the representatives of the nobles of the 
principality, and the burgomasters and senators of 
Mtinster, together with those of the towns of Coesfeld 
and Warendorf, in their own name and in behalf of 
the other towns of the diocese. The captive estates 
were liberated on the 18th February. How the 
magistrates and town kept the other requirements of 
the treaty we shall soon see. 

\_ The senate havingbeen constituted supreme authority 
in spiritual things by the Lutheran party, now under- 
took the organisation of the Evangelical Church in the 
city ; and a few days after the treaty had been signed, 
it published an " Evangelical Constitution," consist- 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 229 

ing of ten articles, for the government of the new 

Church. 1 

\The 8th article had a threatening aspect. "The 
ministers of the Divine Word shall use their utmost 
endeavours to gain souls to the true faith, and to direct 
them in the ways of perfection. As for those who shall 
refuse to accept the pure doctrine, and those who shall 
blaspheme and be guilty of public crimes, the senate 
will employ against them all the rigour of the laws, and 
the sword of justice. 

\ Rottmann was appointed by the magistrates Super- 
intendent of the Lutheran Church in Minister, a 
function bearing a certain resemblance to that of a 
bishop. 2 Then, thinking that a bishop should be the 
husband of one wife at least, Rottmann married the 
widow of Johann Vigers, late syndic of Miinster. 
" She was a person of bad character," says Kerssen- 
broeck, "whom Rottmann had inspired during her 
husband's life with Evangelical principles and an 
adulterous love." 3 It is asserted, with what truth it is 
impossible at this distance of time to decide, that 
Vigers was drowned in his bath at Ems, in a fit, and 
that his wife allowed him to perish without attempting 
to save him. Anyhow, no sooner was he dead, than 
she returned full speed to Miinster and married her 
lover. 4 

\The reformer and his adherents had been given their 
own way, and the senate hoped they would rest satis- 
fied, and that tranquillity would be re-established in the 
city. But their hopes were doomed to disappointment. 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 398 et seq. - Ibid. p. 402. 

3 Ibid. p. 403. 4 Ibid. p. 404. 



2 3 o HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

^Certain people, if given an inch, insist on taking an 
ell ; of these people Rottmann was one. Excited by 
him, the Evangelicals of the town complained that the 
magistrates had treated the Papists with too great 
leniency, that the clergy had not been expelled and 
their goods confiscated according to the original 
programme. It was decided tumultuously that the 
elections must be anticipated ; and on the 3rd March, 
the people deposed the magistrates and elected in their 
room the leaders of the extreme reforming party. 1 
Knipperdolling was of their number ; only four of 
the former magistrates were allowed to retain office, 
and these were men whom they could trust. Her- 
mann Tilbeck and Kaspar Judenfeld were named 
burgomasters ; Heinrich Modersohn and Heinrich 
Redekker were chosen provosts or tribunes of the 
people. 2 

Next to the senate came the turn of the parishes. 
On the 17th March, under the direction of Rottmann, 
the people proceeded to appoint the ministers to the 
churches in the town. Their choice was not happy ; 
it fell on those most unqualified to exercise a salutary 
influence, and restrain the excitement of a mob already 
become nearly ungovernable. 3 

VThe new senate endeavoured to strengthen the 
Evangelical cause by uniting the other towns of the 
diocese in a common bond of resistance. They invited 
these towns to send their deputies to meet those of the 
capital at a little inn between Miinster and Coesfeld, 
on the 20th March. The assembly took place ; but so 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 404. 2 Ibid. p. 405. 3 Ibid. p. 406. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 231 

far from the other cities agreeing to support Mtinster, 
their deputies read those of the capital a severe lecture, 
and refused to throw off their old religion and their 
allegiance to the bishop. 1 

\ On the 24th March, 1533, the burgomaster Tilbeck, 
accompanied by the citizen Kerbink, went to Ueber- 
wasser, summoned the abbess before him, and ordered 
her to maintain at the expense of the abbey the 
preachers lately appointed to the church in connection 
with the convent. She was forced to submit. 2 
\ On the 27th of the same month one of the preachers 
invaded the church of St. Ledger, still in the hands of 
the Catholics, at the head of his congregation, broke 
open the tabernacle, drew out the Host, broke it, and 
blowing the fragments into the air, screamed to the 
assembled multitude, " Look at your good God flying 
away." 

[ The same day the treaty was violated towards the 
Franciscans. Some of the senators ordered them 
to quit their convent, their habit, and their order, 
unless they desired still more rigorous treatment, 
"because the magistrates were resolved to make 
the Church flourish again in her ancient purity, and 
because they wanted to convert the convent into a 
school." 3 

^The superior replied that he and his brethren 
followed strictly the rule of their founder, and that 
this house belonged to them by right of succession, 
and that they were no charge to the town. He said 
that if a building was needed for an Evangelical 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 407 et seq. 2 Ibid. p. 413. 
3 Ibid. p. 413. 



232 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

school, he was ready to surrender to the magistrates a 
portion of the convent buildings ; all he asked in return 
was that he and his brethren should be allowed to live 
in tranquillity. This proposal saved the Franciscans 
for a time. The Evangelical school was established 
in their convent, " but at the end of a month it had 
fallen into complete disorder, whereas the old Papist 
school had not lost one of its pupils, and was as 
flourishing as ever." 1 

^Whilst the senators menaced the monasteries, 
Knipperdolling and his friend Gerhardt Kibbenbroeck 
pillaged the church of S. Lambert. Scarcely a 
day now passed without some fresh act of violence 
done to the Catholics, or Vandalism perpetrated on 
the churches. 

On the 5th April the prior and monks of Bispinkhoff 
were forbidden by the magistrates to hear confessions 
in their own church. The same day the Lutherans 
broke the altar and images in the church of Ueber- 
wasser, and scraped the paintings off the walls. 
I On Palm Sunday, April 6th, 2 at Ueberwasser, some 
of the nuns, urged by the preachers in their church, 
cast off their vows, and joining the people, chanted the 
7th verse of the 124th Psalm according to Luther's 
translation — 

" Der Strich ist entzwei, 
Und wir sind frei." 

" The snare is broken, and we are delivered ; " and then 
they received Communion with the pastors. 
\ On the 7th the mob pillaged the church of the 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 415. " Ibid. p. 416. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 233 

Servites, and defaced it. Next day the Franciscans, 
who had made the wafers for the Holy Sacrament for 
the churches in the diocese, were forbidden to make 
them any more. On the 9th Knipperdolling, heading a 
party of the reformed, broke into the cathedral during 
the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, rushed up to the 
altar, and drove away the priest, exclaiming, " Greedy 
fop, haven't you eaten enough good Gods yet ? " Two 
days later the magistrates ordered the chapter to sur- 
render into their hands their title deeds and sacred 
vessels. On the 14th, Belkot, head of the city tribunal 
of Minister, entered the church of S. Ledger, and 
carried off all its chalices, patens, and ciboriums, 
whilst others who accompanied him destroyed the 
altars, paintings, and statuary, and profaned the church 
in the most disgusting manner. The unhappy 
Catholics, unable to resist, uttered loud lamentations, 
and did not refrain from calling the perpetrators of 
the outrage " robbers and sacrilegious," for which they 
were summoned before the magistrates, and threatened 
with imprisonment unless they apologised. 1 
V As the news of the conversion of the city of Minister 
to the Gospel spread, strangers came to it from all 
parts, to hear and to learn, as they gave out, pure 
Evangelical truth. 
\ Amongst these adventurers was a man destined 
to play a terribly prominent part in the great 
drama that was about to be enacted at Miinster. 
This was John Bockelson, a tailor, a native of Leyden, 
in Holland. He had quitted his country and his wife 
secretly to hear Rottmann. He entered Miinster 
1 Ibid. 417. 



234 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

on the 25th July, and lodged with a citizen named 
Hermann Ramers. Having been instructed in the 
Gospel according to Luther, he went to preach in 
Osnabrtick, but from thence he was driven. He then 
returned to his own home. There he became an 
Anabaptist, under the instruction of John Matthisson, 
who sent him with Gerrit Buchbinder as apostles of 
the sect to Westphalia in the month of November, 

1533- 

\ The time had now arrived when the Lutheran party, 
which had so tyrannically treated the Catholics in the 
city of Minister, was itself to be despotically put down 
and trampled upon by a sect which sprang from its 
own womb. 

\ Rottmann had for some while been wavering in his 
adhesion to Lutheranism. 1 He doubted first, and then 
disbelieved in the Real Presence, which Luther insisted 
upon. He thought that the reformation of the Witten- 
berg doctor was not sufficiently thoroughgoing in 
the matter of ceremonial ; then he doubted the 
scriptural authority for the baptism of infants. Two 
preachers, Heinrich Rott and Herman Strapedius, fell 
in with his views. The former had been a monk at 
Haarlem, but had become a Lutheran preacher. He 
regarded the baptism of infants as one of those things 
which are indifferent to salvation. Strapedius was 
more decided ; he preached against infant baptism as 
an abomination in the sight of God. He was named 
by the people preacher at S. Lambert's, the head 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 429 et scq.\ Sleidan, French tr. p. 409 ; 
Bullinger, "Adv. Anabapt.," 116, ii. c. 8. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 235 

■church of the city, in spite of the opposition of the 
authorities. 1 

VThe Lutheran senate of Miinster, which a few 
months previously had been elected enthusiastically 
by the people, now felt that before these fiery preachers, 
drifting into Anabaptism, their power was in as pre- 
carious a position as was that of those whom they had 
supplanted. Alarmed at the rapid extension of the 
new forms of disbelief, they twice forbade Rottmann to 
preach against the baptism of infants and the Real 
Presence, and ordered him to conform in his teaching 
to authorised Lutheran doctrine. He treated their 
orders with contempt. Then they summoned him 
before them : he appeared, but on leaving the Rath- 
haus, preached in the square to the people with 
redoubled violence. 

w The senate, at their wits' end, ordered a public 
discussion between Rottmann and the orthodox 
Lutherans, represented by Hermann Busch. The 
discussion took place before the city Rath, and the 
senate decided that Busch had gained the day, and 
they therefore forbade all innovation in the adminis- 
tration of baptism and the Lord's Supper. 
\ Rottmann and his colleague disregarded the moni- 
tion, and continued their sermons against the rags of 
Popery which still disfigured the Lutheran Church. 
Several of the ministers in the town, whether from 
conviction or from interest, finding that their congrega- 
tions drained away to the churches where the stronger- 
spiced doctrine was preached, joined the movement. 
It was simply a carrying of negation beyond the pillars 
1 Kerssenbroeck, pp. 431, 432 ; Dorp., f. 322-3. 



236 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

of Hercules planted by Luther. Luther had denied of 
the sum total of Catholic dogmas, say (ten, and had 
retained ten. The Anabaptist denied two more, 
and retained only eight. On the ioth August a 
tumultuous scene took place in the church of S. 
Giles. 1 A Dutch preacher began declaiming against 
baptism of children. Johann Windemoller, ex- 
senator, a vehement opponent of Anabaptist disin- 
tegration of Lutheran doctrine, who was in the 
congregation, rushed up the pulpit stairs, and pulled 
the preacher down, exclaiming, \ Scoundrel ! how- 
dare you take upon you the office of preacher — 
you who, a few years ago, were thrust into the iron- 
collar, and branded on the cheek for your crimes? 
Do you think I do not know your antecedents ? You 
talk of virtue, you gibbet-bird ? You who are guilty 
of so many crimes and impieties ? Go along with you, 
take your doctrine and your brand elsewhere." 

Windemoller was about to turn the pastor out of 
the church, when a number of women, who had joined 
the Anabaptist party, fell, howling, upon Windemoller, 
crying that he wanted to deprive them of the saving 
Gospel and Word of Truth, and they would have 
strangled him had he not beat a precipitate retreat. 
The same afternoon, some citizens who brought their 
children to this church to be baptized were driven from 
the doors with shouts of derision. 

The magistrates played a trump card, and ordered 

Rottmann to leave the town, together with the ministers. 

who followed his teaching. 2 Bernard Rottmann replied 

much in the same strain as he had answered the bishop, 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 434. 2 Ibid. p. 436. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 237 

stating that his doctrine was strictly conformable to 
the pure word of God, and that he demanded a public 
discussion, in which his doctrines might be tested by 
Scripture alone, without human additions. Finally he 
protested that he would not abstain from preaching, 
nor desert his flock, whether the senate persisted in 
its sentence or not. Five ministers signed this defiant 
letter — Rottmann, Johann Clopris, Heinrich Roll, Gott- 
fried Strahl, and Denis Vinnius. These men at once 
hastened to collect the heads of the corporations and 
provosts together, and urge them to take their part 
against the Rath. They were quite prepared to do 
so, and the magistrates yielded on condition that 
Bernard and his following of preachers should abstain 
from speaking on the disputed questions of infant 
baptism and the Eucharist. Rottmann consented, in 
his own name and in that of his friends, in a paper 
dated October 3rd, 1 533- 1 The senate was, however, 
well aware that its power was tottering to its fall, and 
that the preachers had not the remotest intention of 
fulfilling their engagement. They saw that these men 
were gradually absorbing into themselves the supreme 
authority in the city, and that a magistracy which 
opposed them could at any moment be by them dis- 
missed their office. In alarm they wrote to the prince- 
bishop, and sent him messengers to lay before him the 
precarious condition of the affairs in the capital, 
imploring him to consider the imminence of the peril, 
and to send them learned theologians who could com- 
bat the spread of erroneous doctrine, and introduce 
those conformable to the pure word of God. 2 
1 Ibid. pp. 437-9 2 Ibid. p. 441. 



238 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

It was a singular state of affairs indeed. The 
magistrates had appealed to the pure word of God, as 
understood by Luther, against Catholicism, and now 
the Anabaptists appealed to the same oracle, with 
equal confidence against Lutheranism ; the two parties 
leaned on the same support — who was to decide which 
party Scripture upheld ? 

The answer of Francis of Waldeck was such as 
might have been expected from a man endowed with 
some common sense. He reminded the magistrates 
that it was their own fault if things had come to such a 
pass ; he feared that now the evil had gained the upper 
hand, and that gentleness was out of place ; a decided 
face could alone secure to the magistrates moral 
authority. He was ready to support them if they 
would maintain their allegiance for the future. He 
would send them a learned theologian, Dr. Heinrich 
Mumpert, prior of the Franciscans of Bispinkhoff, to 
preach against error in the cathedral. 
r The senate was in a dilemma. They had no wish 
to return to Catholicism, and they dreaded the progress 
of schism. They stood on an inclined plane. Above 
was the rock of an infallible authority; below, faith 
shelved into an abyss of negation they shrank from 
fathoming. If they looked back, they saw Catholicism; 
if they looked forward, they beheld the dissolution of 
all positive belief. Like all timorous men they shrank 
from either alternative, and attempted for a little 
longer to maintain their slippery position. They 
declined the offer of the Catholic doctor, and turned 
to the Landgrave Philip of Hesse for assistance. The 
Landgrave at once acceded to the request of the magis- 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 239. 

trates, and sent them Theodore Fabricius and Johann 
Melsinger, guaranteeing to their senate their ortho- 
doxy. 1 

While these preachers were on their way, disorder 
increased in Mtinster. The faction of Rottmann grew 
apace, and spread into the Convent of Ueberwasser, 
where the nuns were daily compelled to hear the 
harangues of two zealous Evangelical pastors, who 
exerted themselves strenuously to demolish the faith 
of the sisters down to the point fixed as the limit of 
negation by Luther. But these pastors having be- 
come infected with Rottmann's views, continued the 
work of destruction, and lowered the temple of faith 
two additional stages. 

The result of these sermons on the excitable nuns 
\ 

was that the majority broke out into revolt, and re- 
fused to observe abstinence and practise self-mortifica- 
tion ; and proclaimed their intention of returning to 
the world and marrying. The bishop wrote to them, 
imploring them to consider that they were all of them 
members of noble families, and that they must be 
careful in no way to dishonour their families by scan- 
dalous behaviour. The mutineers seemed disposed 
to yield, but we shall presently see that their submis- 
sion was only temporary. 2 

On the 15th October, the senate wrote to the bishop, 
and informed him that they would not permit the 
prior Mumpert to preach in the cathedral. 3 They 
acknowledged that according to the treaty of Telgte, 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 443 ; Sleidan, p. 410 ; Dorpius, f. 393 b. 
2 Kerssenbroeck, p. 443. 3 Ibid. p. 444. 



2 4 o HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

the city had consented to allow the Catholics the use 
of the cathedral, " until such time as the Lord shall 
dispose otherwise," but, they said, at the time of the 
conclusion of the treaty, there was no preacher at the 
minster ; which was true, for the Catholic clergy had 
been forbidden the use of the pulpit ; and they declared 
that " in all good conscience, they could not permit 
the institution of one whose doctrine and manner of 
life were not conformable to the gospel." 
-4 Francis of Waldeck, without paying attention to 
this refusal, ordered Mumpert to preach and celebrate 
the Eucharist in the cathedral church, on Sunday, 
26th October, 1533. The prior obeyed. The fury of 
the Evangelicals was without limits ; and in a second 
letter, more insolent than the first, the magistrates told 
the bishop that " they would not suffer a fanatical friar 
to come and teach error to the people." The bishop's 
sole reply was a command to the prior to continue his 
course. 

_^ At this moment the learned divines sent by Philip 
of Hesse arrived in the city, and hearing of the sermons 
in the minster, to which the people flocked, and which 
were likely to produce a counter- current in a Catholic 
direction, they insisted, as a preliminary to their mis- 
sion, that the mouth of the Catholic preacher should 
be stopped. " We pray you," said they to the magis- 
trates, " to forbid this man permission to reside in the 
town, lest our pure doctrine be choked by his abomin- 
able sermons. An authority claiming to be Christian 
should not tolerate such a scandal." 
„ The senate hastened to satisfy the Hessian theo- 
logians, by not merely ordering the Catholic preacher 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 241 

to leave the city, but by outlawing him, so that he was 
obliged in haste to fly a place where his life 
might be taken by any unscrupulous persons with 
impunity. 1 

,,—JFrancis of Waldeck, justly irritated, wrote to Philip 
of Hesse, remonstrating at the interference of his com- 
missioners in the affairs of another man's principality. 2 
The Landgrave replied that, so far from deserving re- 
proach, he merited thanks for having sent to Mtinster 
two divines of the first class, who would preach there 
the pure Word of God, and would strangle the monster 
of Anabaptism. With the outlawry of the Catholic 
preacher, the struggle between Catholicism and 
Lutheranism closed ; the struggle for the future was 
to be between Lutheranism and Anabaptism ; a 
struggle desperate on the part of the Lutherans, for 
what basis had they for operation ? The Catholics had 
an intrenched position in the authority of a Church, 
which they claimed to be invested with divine in- 
errancy, by commission from Christ ; but the Lutheran 
and Anabaptist fought over the pages of the Bible, 
each claiming Scripture as on his side. It was a war 
within a camp, to decide which should pitch the other 
outside the rampart of the letter. 

^ Fabricius and Melsinger fought for Infant Baptism 
and the Real Presence, Rottmann and Strapedius 
against both. " Do you call this the body and blood 
of Christ ? " exclaimed Master Bernard one day, whilst 
he was distributing the Sacrament ; and flinging it on 
the ground, he continued, " Were it so, it would get up 
from the ground and mount the altar of itself without 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 444 et seq. 2 Ibid. p. 457 ^ se ?> 

Q 



242 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

my help. Know by this that neither the body nor 
blood of Christ are here." 1 

Peter Wyrthemius, a Lutheran preacher, was inter- 
rupted, when he attempted to preach, by the shouts 
and jeers of the Anabaptists, and was at last driven 
from his pulpit. 

. .... Rottmann kept his promise not to preach Anabap- 
tist doctrine in the pulpit, but he printed and circulated 
a number of tracts and pamphlets, and held meetings 
in private houses for the purpose of disseminating his 
views. 2 His reputation increased rapidly, and ex- 
tended afar. Disciples came from Holland, Brabant, 
and Friesland, to place themselves under his direction ; 
women even confided to him the custody of their 
children. 

The most lively anxiety inspired the senate to make 
another attempt to regain their supremacy in the 
direction of affairs. 

-~ On the 3rd or 4th November, the heads of the 
guilds and the provosts and patricians of the city were 
assembled to deliberate, and it was resolved that 
Rottmann and his colleagues should be expelled the 
town and the diocese ; and to remove from them the 
excuse that they feared arrest when they quitted the 
walls of Miinster, the magistrates obtained for them a 
safe-conduct, signed by the bishop and the upper 
chapter. 3 

Next day, the magistrates and chief citizens reas- 
sembled in the market square, and voted that "not 
only should the Anabaptist preachers be exiled, but 

1 Dorpius, f. 394. 2 Kerssenbroeck, p. 448. 

3 Ibid. p. 449. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 243 

also those of the magistrates who had supported them; 
and that this sentence should receive immediate 
execution." 1 

■\This was too sweeping a measure to pass without 
provoking resistance. The burgomaster, Tilbeck, who 
felt that the blow was aimed at himself, exclaimed, 
angrily : " Is this the reward I receive for having 
prudently governed the republic ? But we will not 
suffer the innocent to be oppressed, and we shall treat 
you in such a manner as will calm your insolence." 

These words gave the signal for an open rupture. 

tvnipperdolling and Hermann Krampe, both mem- 
bers of the senate, drew their swords and ranged 
themselves beside the burgomaster, calling the people 
to arms. The mob at once rushed upon the senators. 
The servants of the chapter and the clergy in the 
cathedral close, hastened carrying arms to the assist- 
ance of the magistrates. Both parties sought a place of 
defence, each anticipating an attack. The Lutherans 
occupied the Rath-haus and barricaded the doors. 
The Anabaptists retired behind the strong walls of 
the cemetery of St. Lambert The night was spent 
by both parties under arms, and a fight appeared 
imminent on the morrow. Then the syndic Johann 
von Wyck persuaded the frightened senate to moderate 
their sentence, and hurrying to the Anabaptists, he 
urged them to be reconciled to the magistrates. An 
agreement was finally concluded, whereby Rottmann 
was forbidden for the future to preach, and every one 
was to be allowed to believe what he liked, and to 
disbelieve what he chose. 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 450 et seq. 



244 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

Master Bernard, however, evaded his obligation by- 
holding meetings in private houses at night, to which 
his followers were summoned by the discharge of a 
gun. 1 Considering that it was now necessary that his 
adherents should have their articles of belief, or rather 
of disbelief, as a bond of union and of distinction 
between themselves and the Lutherans, he drew up a 
profession of faith in nineteen articles. That which he 
had published nine months before was antiquated, and 
represented the creed of the Lutheran faction, against 
which he was now at variance. 

This second creed contained the following proposi- 
tions : — 

The baptism of children is abominable before 
God. 

The habitual ceremonies used at baptism are the 
work of the devil and of the Pope, who is Antichrist. 

The consecrated Host is the great Baal. 

A Christian (that is, a member of Rottmann's sect) 
does not set foot in the religious assemblies of the im- 
pious (i.e., of the Catholics and Lutherans). 

He holds no communication and has no relations 
with them ; he is not bound to obey their authorities ; 
he has nothing in common with their tribunals ; nor 
does he unite with them in marriage. 

The Sabbath was instituted by the Lord God, and 
there is no scriptural warrant for transferring the obli- 
gation to the Sunday. 

Papists and Lutherans are to be regarded as equally 
infamous, and those who give faith to the inventions 
of priests are veritable pagans. 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 453 et seq. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 245 

^.During fourteen centuries there have been no true 
Christians. Christ was the last priest ; the apostles 
did not enjoy the priestly office. 

Jesus Christ did not derive His human nature from 
Mary. 1 

-\ Every marriage concluded before re-baptism is 
invalid. 
^ Faith in Christ must precede baptism. 

Wives shall call their husbands lords. 

.-Usury is forbidden. 
^-The faithful shall possess all things in common. 

The publication of this formulary of faith, if such 
it may be called, which is a string of negative pro- 
positions, increased the alarm of the more sober citi- 
zens, who, feeling the insecurity of property and life 
under a powerless magistracy, prepared to leave the 
town. Many fled and left their Lutheranism behind 
them. Lening, one of the preachers sent by the Land- 
grave of Hesse, ran away. 

Fabricius had more courage. He preached ener- 
getically against Rottmann, assisted by Dr. Johann 
Westermann, a Lutheran theologian of Lippe. 2 

According to Kerssenbroeck, however, half the town 
followed by the Anabaptist leader, and brought their 
goods and money to lay them at his feet. Those 

1 This is corroborated by the Acta, Handlungen, &c, fol. 385. 
" The Preachers : Do you believe that Christ received His flesh 
oft" the flesh of Mary, by the operation of the Holy Ghost ? John 
of Ley den : No ; such is not the teaching of Scripture." And he 
explained that if the flesh had been taken from Mary, it must 
have been sinful, for she was not immaculate. 

2 Kerssenbroeck, p. 456 ; Sleidan, p. 411. 



246 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

who had nothing of their own, in a body joined the 
society which proclaimed community of goods. 

"The bishop again wrote to the magistrates, urging 
them to permit the Catholic preacher, Mumpert, the 
use of the cathedral pulpit, but the senate refused, and 
continued their vain efforts to build their theological 
system on a slide. At their request, Fabricius and 
Westermann drew up (November 28, 1533) a symbol 
of belief in opposition to that formulated by Rottmann, 
and it was read and adopted by the Lutherans in the 
Church of St. Lambert. A large number of the people 
gave in their adhesion to this last and newest creed, 
and the magistrates, emboldened thereby, made a de- 
scent upon the house of the ex-superintendent, and 
confiscated his private press, with which he had printed 
his tracts. 1 

"~ v It was then that the two apostles, Buchbinder and 
Bockelson, sent by Matthisson into Westphalia, ap- 
peared in the city. They remained there only four 
days, during which they re-baptised the preachers and 
several of their adepts, and then retired prophesying 
their speedy return and the advent of the reign of 
grace. 

-^ Rottmann, highly exasperated against Fabricius for 
having drawn- up his counter-creed, went on the 30th 
November to the churchyard of St. Lambert, and 
standing in an elevated situation, preached to the 
people on his own new creed, whilst Fabricius was 
discoursing within to his congregation on his own pro- 
fession of faith. 

„_ When service was over Fabricius came out, and was 
1 Ibid. p. 456. 



THE ANABAPTIS TS OF MUNS TEE. 247 

immediately attacked by Rottmann with injurious ex- 
pressions, which, however, so exasperated the congre- 
gation of the Lutheran, that they fell upon the late 
superintendent of the Evangelical Church, and threat- 
ened him with their sticks and fists. 
^— On the 1st December, Fabricius complained in the 
pulpit of the insult he had received, and appealed to 
the people to judge between his doctrine and that of 
Master Bernard by the difference there was between 
their respective behaviour. 1 

A new Anabaptist orator now appeared on the 
stage ; he was a blacksmith's apprentice, named 
Johann Schrceder. On the 8th December he occupied 
the position in the cemetery of St. Lambert from which 
Rottmann had been forced to fly, and defied the 
Lutherans to oppose him with the pure Word of God. 
He denounced them as still in darkness, as wrapped 
in the trappings of Popery, and as enemies to the 
Gospel of Christ and Evangelical liberty. Then 
he dared Fabricius to meet him in a public dis- 
cussion, and prove his doctrine by the text of Scrip- 
ture. 2 

The magistrates resolved on one more attempt to 
arrest the disorder. On the nth November they in- 
formed Rottmann that, unless he immediately left the 
city, they would decree his outlawry. Rottmann sent 
a message to them in reply, " That he would not go ; 
that he was not afraid ; and that exile was to him an 
empty word, for, wherever he was, the heavenly Father 
would cover him with His wings." He took no further 
notice of the order, except only that he instituted a 
1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 461. 2 Ibid. p. 461. 



248 HISTORIC ODDITIES, 

bodyguard of armed citizens to accompany him wher- 
ever he went. On the Sunday following, December 
14th, he betook himself, surrounded by his guard, to 
the church of the Servites, where he intended to 
preach. But finding the doors locked, he placed him- 
self under a lime-tree near the building and pro- 
nounced his discourse, without any one venturing to 
lay a hand upon him. 1 

-—/The magistrates were equally unsuccessful in silenc- 
ing the blacksmith Schrceder. This man, having 
preached again on the 15th December, was taken by 
the police and thrown into prison. Next day the 
members of the Blacksmiths' Guild marched to the 
Rath-haus, armed with their hammers and with bars of 
iron, to demand the release of their comrade. A 
violent dispute arose between the senators and the 
exasperated artisans. The former declared that 
Schrceder, whose trade was to shoe horses and not to 
preach, had deserved death for having incited to sedi- 
tion. The reply of the blacksmiths was very similar 
to that made by the senate to the bishop when he 
ordered the expulsion of Rottmann. " Schrceder," 
said they, "has been urged on by love of truth, and he 
has preached with so much zeal that he has made 
himself hoarse. He has been guilty neither of mur- 
der nor of any crime worthy of death. How dare you 
maltreat this one who has given edifying instruction 
to his fellow citizens ? Must nothing be done without 
your authorisation ? " Upon the heels of the argu- 
ments came menaces. The senate yielded again, and 
promised to release Schrceder on the morrow. 
1 Ibid. p. 163 ; Dorpius, f. 394 a. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 249 

" Not to-morrow," shouted the blacksmiths ; " re- 
store our comrade to us immediately, or we will burst 
open the prison doors," 

<—\ The magistrates bowed to the storm, taking, how- 
ever, the worse than useless precaution of making 
Schrceder swear, before they knocked off his chains, 
that he would not attempt to revenge on them his 
captivity. 1 

On the 2 1 st December, Rottmann resumed the use 
of his pulpit in the church of the Servites, treating the 
orders of the senate with supreme contempt. Wester- 
mann, tired of a struggle with the swelling tide, de- 
serted Miinster, leaving Fabricius alone to fight against 
the growing power of the Anabaptists. 

The year 1534 opened under gloomy auspices at 
Miinster. In the first few days of January, the new 
sect dealt the Lutherans the same measure these 
latter had dealt the Catholics a twelvemonth before. 
They invaded their churches and disturbed divine 
worship. 

Fabricius attacked Rottmann violently in a sermon 

'preached on the 4th January, and offered to have a 

public discussion with him on the moot points of 

doctrine. The senate accepted the proposition with 

transport, but Rottmann refused. " Not," said he, " that 

I am afraid of entering the lists against this Lutheran, 

but that men are so corrupt that they would certainly 

condemn that side which had for its support right and 

the word of Scripture." 2 

,,-— \On the same day that Rottmann sent in his refusal, 

a band of women tumultuously entered the town-hall 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 464. 2 Ibid. pp. 466, 467. 



250 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

and demanded that " the miserable foreign vagabond 
Fabricius, who could not even speak the dialect of the 
country, and who, inspired by an evil spirit, preaches 
all kinds of absurdities in a tongue scarcely intel- 
ligible, should be driven out of the city. Set in his 
place the worthy Rottmann," said the women ; " he is 
prudent, eloquent, instructed in every kind of know- 
ledge, and he can speak our language. Grant us this 
favour, Herrn Burgmeistern, and we will pray God 
for you." The burgomasters requested the ladies not 
to meddle with matters that concerned them not, but 
to return to their families and kitchens. This invita- 
tion drove them into a paroxysm of rage, and they 
shouted at the top of their shrill voices : " Here are 
fine burgomasters ! They are neglecting the interests 
of the town ! Here are tender fathers of their country 
who attend to nothing ! You are worse than mur- 
derers, for they kill the body, but you assassinate souls 
by depriving them of the Evangelical Word which is 
their nourishment." The women then retired, but re- 
turned next day reinforced by others, and among 
them were six nuns who had deserted the convent of 
Ueberwasser and exhibited greater violence than the 
rest. 

— i. The women entered the hall where the senators were 
sitting and demanded peremptorily that Rottmann 
should be instituted to the church of St. Lambert. 
They were turned out of the hall without much cere- 
mony, but they waited the exit of the magistrates 
when their session was at an end ; then they be- 
spattered them with cow and horse dung, and cursed 
them as Papists. " At first you favoured our holy en- 



THE ANABAPTISTS OFMUNSTER. 251 

terprise, but you have returned to Popery like dogs to 
their vomit. Since you have devoured the good 
Hessian God which Fabricius offers you in com- 
munion, you oppress the pure Word of God. To the 
gallows, to the gallows with you all ! " The senators 
fled to their houses, pursued by the women, covered 
with filth, and deafened by their yells. 1 
,-\Rottmann and his colleagues exercised an extra- 
ordinary influence over the people ; they persuaded the 
rich ladies and citizens' wives of substance to sell 
their goods, give up their jewels, and cast everything 
they had into a common fund. The prompt sub- 
mission of so many proves that the number of fanatics 
who were sincere in their convictions was considerable. 
These proceedings led to estrangement in families. 
Kerssenbroeck relates that the wife of one of 
the senators, named Wardemann, having been re- 
baptised by Rottmann, " was so vigorously confirmed 
in her faith by her husband, who had been informed 
by a servant maid of the circumstance, that she 
could not walk for several weeks." Other women, • 
who had given up their jewels and money to 
Rottmann, were also severely chastised by their 
husbands. 2 

The magistrates, afraid to touch Rottmann's person, 
hoped to weaken him by dismissing his assistants. 
They therefore, on the 15th January, 1534, ordered 
their officers to take the Anabaptist preachers, Clopris, 
Roll, and Strahl, and to turn them out of the town, 
with orders never to re-enter it. The mandate was ex- 
ecuted ; but the ministers returned by another gate, 
1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 468. 2 Ibid. p. 472. 



252 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

and were conducted in triumph to their parsonages by 
the whole body of the Anabaptists. 1 

-The fugitive nuns of Ueberwasser, to the number of 
eight, were re-baptised by Rottmann on the nth Jan- 
uary, and became some of his most devoted adherents. 
Their conduct in the sequel was characterised by the 
most shameless lubricity. 

The prince-bishop at this time published a decree 
against the Anabaptists, outlawed Rottmann and five 
other preachers of that sect in Miinster, and ordered 
his officers to check the spread of the schism through 
the other towns of his principality. 

On the 23rd January, Rottmann having noticed 
some Catholics and Lutherans amongst his audience 
in the church of the Servites, abruptly stopped his 
sermon, saying that it was not meet to cast the pearls 
of the new revelation before swine. 2 Then he de- 
scended from the pulpit, and refused to remount it 
again. But probably the real cause of this sudden 
cessation was, that the views of the leader were under- 
going a third change, and he was unwilling to announce 
his new doctrine to an audience of which all were not 
prepared to receive it. He continued to assemble the 
faithful in private houses, and to hold daily assemblies, 
in which they were initiated into the further mysteries 
of his revelation. In every parish a house was pro- 
vided for the purpose, and none were admitted 
without a pass -word. In these gatherings the 
mystic was able to give full development to his views 
without the restraint of an only partially sympathis- 
ing audience. 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 473. 2 Ibid. p. 476. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 253- 

f On the evening of the 28th January, at seven o'clock, 

the Anabaptists stretched chains across the streets, 
assembled in armed bands, closed the city gates, and 
placed sentinels in all directions. A terrible anxiety 
reigned in the city. The Lutherans remained up and 
awake all night, a prey to fear, with their doors and 
windows barricaded, waiting to see what these prepara- 
tions signified. The night passed, broken only by 
the tramp of the sectarian fanatics, and lighted by the 
glare of their torches. 

% Dawn broke and nothing further had taken place, 
when suddenly two men, dressed like prophets, with 
long ragged beards, ample garments, and flowing 
mantles, staff in hand paced through the town 
solemnly, up one street and down another, raising their 
eyes to heaven, sighing, and then looking down with 
an expression of compassion on the multitude, which 
bowed before them and saluted them as Enoch and 
Elias. After having traversed the greater part of the 
town, the two men entered the door of Knipperdolling's 
house. 1 

..- The names of these prophets were John Matthisson 
and John Bockelson. The first was the chief of the 
Anabaptist sect in Holland. The part which the 
second was destined to play in Mtinster demands that 
his antecedents should be more fully given. Bockel- 
son was the bastard son of Bockel, bailiff of the Hague, 
and a certain Adelhaid, daughter of a serf of the Lord 
of Zoelcken, in the diocese of Mtinster. This Adel- 
haid purchased her liberty afterwards and married her 
seducer. John was brought up at Leyden, where he 
1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 476. 



254 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

was apprenticed to a tailor. He visited England, 
Portugal, and Lubeck, and returned to Leyden in his 
twenty-first year. He then married the widow of a 
boatman, who presented him with two sons. John 
Bockelson was endowed by nature with a ready wit 
and with a retentive memory. He amused himself by 
learning nearly the whole of the Bible by heart, and by 
composing obscene verses and plays. In addition to 
his business of tailoring, he opened a public-house un- 
der the sign of " The Three Herrings," which became a 
haunt of women of bad repute. The passion for change 
came over Bockelson after leading this sort of life for 
a while, and he visited Munster in 1533, as we have 
already seen, and thence passed to Osnabriick, from 
which place he was expelled. After wandering about 
Westphalia for a while he returned to Leyden. Next 
year, in company with. Matthisson, the head of the 
Anabaptists, he visited Miinster, which the latter de- 
clared prophetically was destined to be the new Jer- 
usalem, the capital of a regenerate world, where the 
millennial kingdom was to be set up. 1 

The two adventurers reached their destination on 
the 13th January, and Knipperdolling received them 
into his house. Some of the preachers were informed 
of their arrival, but were required to keep the matter 
secret till ' the time ordained of God should come for 
their revealing themselves to the world. 

A council was being held in the house of Knipper- 
dolling, when the prophets entered it after having 
finished their peregrination of the town. Rottmann, 

1 Kerssenbroeck, part ii. p. 51 et scq.j Heresbach, p. 31 ; 
Hast, p. 324. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 255 

Roll, Clopris, Strapedius, Vinnius, and Strahl were 
engaged in a warm discussion. Some of the party 
were of opinion that the moment had arrived, now 
that all the Anabaptists were under arms, for a general 
purification of the city by the massacre or expulsion 
of Catholics and Lutherans ; the others thought that 
the hour of vengeance had not yet struck, and that 
the day of the Lord must not be antedated. The 
quarrel was appeased by the appearance of the two 
prophets, who were hailed as messengers sent from 
heaven to announce the will of God. Then Matthisson 
and his companion knelt down and wept, and having 
meditated some moments, they uttered their decision 
in voices broken by sobs. " The time for cleansing 
the threshing-floor of the Lord is not yet come. The 
slaughter of the ungodly must be delayed, that souls 
may be gathered in, and that souls may be formed 
and educated in houses set apart, and not in churches 
which were lately filled with idols. But," said they 
in conclusion, " the day of the Lord is at hand." 
^-^These words reconciled the council. On the evening 
of the 29th, the Anabaptists laid aside their arms and 
returned to their homes. 1 The events of the night 
had utterly dispelled the last traces of courage in the 
magistrates ; they did not venture to notice the 
threatening aspect of the armed fanatics, or to remon- 
strate with them for barricading the streets. To avert 
all possible danger from themselves was their only 
object ; and to effect this they published an act of 
toleration, permitting every man to worship God and 

1 Kerssenbroeck, part i. p. 477 et seq. 



256 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

perform his public and private devotions as he thought 
proper. 

The power of Rottmann had become so great, 
through the events just recorded, that a false prophecy- 
did not serve to upset his authority. On the 6th 
February, at the head of a troop of his admirers, he 
invaded the Church of Ueberwasser, " to prevent the 
Evangelical flame kindled in the hearts of the nuns 
from dying out." 1 Having summoned all the sisters 
into the church, he mounted the pulpit and preached to 
them a sermon on matrimony, in which he denounced 
convents and monasteries, in which the most imperious 
laws of nature were left unfulfilled, and " he urged the 
nuns to labour heartily for the propagation of the 
human race ;" and then he completely turned the 
heads of the young women, by announcing to them 
with an inspired air, that their convent would fall at 
midnight, and would bury beneath its ruins every one 
who was found within its walls. " This salutary 
announcement : has been made to me," said he, 
"by one of the prophets now present in this town, 
and the Heavenly Father has also favoured me 
with a direct and special revelation to the same 
effect." 2 

- This was enough to complete the conversion of the 
nuns, already shaken in their faith by the sermons they 
had been compelled to listen to for some time past 
In vain did the Abbess Ida and two other sisters 
implore them to remain and despise the prophecy. 
The infatuated women, in paroxysms of fear and 
excitement, fled the convent and took refuge in the 
1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 479. 2 Hast, p. 329 et seq. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 257 

house of Rottmann, where they changed their clothes, 
and then ran about the town uttering cries of 

joy. 

j The prophecy of Rottmann had been repeated by 
one to another throughout Minister. No one slept 
that night. Crowds poured down the streets in the 
direction of Ueberwasser, and the square in front of 
the convent was densely packed with breathless 
spectators, awaiting the ruin of the house. 

Midnight tolled from the cathedral tower. The 
crowd waited another hour. It struck one, and the 
convent had not fallen. Master Bernard was not the 
man to be disconcerted by so small a matter. " Pro- 
phecies," cried he, " are always conditional. Jonah 
foretold that Nineveh should be destroyed in forty 
days, but since the inhabitants repented, it remained 
standing. The same has taken place here. Nearly 
all the nuns have repented, have quitted their 
cloister and their habit, have renounced their vows 
— thus the anger of the Heavenly Father has been 
allayed." 1 

The preacher Roll was next seized with prophetic 
inspiration. He ran through the town, foaming at the 
mouth, his eyes rolling, his hair and garments in dis- 
order, his face haggard, uttering at one moment in- 
articulate howls, and at another, exhortations to the 
impenitent to turn and be saved, for that the day of 
the Lord was at hand. 2 

A young girl of eighteen, the daughter of a tailor 
named Gregory Zumberge, was next seized. " On the 
8th February she was possessed with a sort of oratori- 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 479. * Dorpius, p. 394. 

R 



258 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

cal fury, and she preached with fire and extraordinary- 
volubility before an astonished crowd." 
-.The same day the spirit fell on Knipperdolling and 
Bockelson ; they ran about the streets with bare heads 
and uplifted eyes, repeating incessantly in shrill tones, 
"Repent, repent, repent, ye sinners; woe, woe!" 
Having reached the market-place, they fell into one 
another's arms before a crowd of citizens and artizans 
who ran up from all directions. At the same moment, 
the tailor, Gregory Zumberge, father of the preaching 
damsel, arrived with his hair flying, his arms extended, 
his face contorted, and a wild light playing in his eyes, 
and cried, " Lift up your heads, O men, O dear 
brothers ! I see the majesty of God in the clouds, and 
Jesus waving the standard of victory. Woe to ye 
impious ones who have resisted the truth ! Repent, 
repent ! I see the Heavenly Father surrounded by 
thousands of angels menacing you with destruction ! 
Be converted ! the great and terrible day of the Lord 
is come. . . . God will truly purge His floor, and 
burn the chaff with unquenchable fire. . . . Re- 
nounce your evil ways and adopt the sign of the New 
Convenant, if you wish to escape the wrath of the 
Lord." 

" It is impossible," says the oft-quoted writer, who 
was eye-witness in the town of all he describes, " im- 
possible to imagine the gestures and antics which 
accompanied this discourse. Now the tailor leaped 
about on the stones and seemed as though about to 
fly ; then he turned his head with extraordinary 
rapidity, beating his hands together, and looking up 
to heaven and then down to earth. Then, all at once, 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 259 

an expression of despair came over his face, and he 
fell on the pavement in the form of a cross, and 
rolled in the mud. A good number of us young 
fellows were there," continues Kerssenbroeck, " much 
astonished at their howling, and looking attentively at 
the sky to see if there really was anything extraordin- 
ary to be seen there ; but not distinguishing anything, 
we began to make fun of the illuminati, and this de- 
cided them to retire to the house of Knipperdolling." 1 
■—> There a new scene commenced. The ecstatics left 
doors and windows wide open, that all that passed 
within might be seen and heard by the dense crowd 
which packed the street without. Those in the street 
saw Knipperdolling place himself in a corner, his face 
to the wall, and carry on in broken accents a familiar 
conversation with God the Father. At one moment 
he was seen to be listening, then to be replying, 
making the strangest gestures, This went on for some 
time, till another actor appeared. This was a blind 
Scottish beggar, very tall and gaunt — a zealous Ana- 
baptist. He was fantastically dressed in rags, and 
wore high-heeled boots to add to his stature. Although 
blind, he ran about exclaiming that he saw strange 
visions in the sky. This was enough to attract a 
crowd, which followed him to the corner of the 
Konig's Strasse, when, just as he was exclaiming, 
" Alas, alas ! Heaven is going this instant to fall !" he 
tumbled over a dung-heap which was in his way. This 
accident woke him from his ecstasy, and he picked 
himself up in great confusion, and never prophesied 
again. 2 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 483. 2 Ibid. p. 479. 



260 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

"~\But his place was speedily supplied by another 
man named Jodocus Culenburg, who, in order to con- 
vey himself with greater rapidity whither the Spirit 
called him, rode about the town on a horse, announc- 
ing in every street that he heard the peal of the Last 
Trumpet. Several women also were taken with the 
prophetic spirit, and one, named Timmermann, 
declared that " the King of Heaven was about to 
appear like a lightning-flash, and would re-establish 
Jerusalem." Another woman, whose cries and calls 
to repentance had caused her to lose her voice, ran 
about with a bell attached to her girdle, urging the 
bystanders with expressive gestures to join the num- 
ber of the elect and be saved. 1 

These fantastic scenes had made a profound impres- 
sion on many of the citizens of Minister. A nervous 
affection accompanying mystic excitement is always 
infectious. The agitation of minds and consciences, 
became general ; men and women had trances, prayed 
in public, screamed, had visions, and fell into cataleptic 
fits. In those days people knew nothing of physical 
and psychological causes ; the general excitement was. 
attributed by them to supernatural agency. It w r as 
simply a question whether these signs were produced 
by the devil or by the Spirit of God. The Catholics 
attributed the signs to the agency of Satan ; the 
Lutherans were in nervous uncertainty. Were they 
resisting God or the devil ? Fear lest they should be 
found in the ranks of those fighting against the Holy 
Spirit drew off numbers of the timorous and most con- 
scientious to swell the ranks of the mystical sect 
1 Ibid. p. 484. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 261 

Miinster was exhibiting on a large scale what is re- 
produced in our own land in many a Wesleyan and 
Ranter revival meeting. 

,-"The time had now come, thought Rottmann, for the 
destruction of the enemies of God. Secret notice was 
sent to the different Anabaptist congregations to be 
prepared to strike the blow on the 9th of February. 
Accordingly, early in the morning, 500 fanatics seized 
on the gates of the city, the Rath-haus, and the arms 
it contained ; cannons were planted in the chapel of 
St. Michael, the tower of St. Lambert's church, and in 
the market place ; barricades of stones, barrels, and 
benches from the church were thrown up. The com- 
mon danger united Catholics and Lutherans ; they 
saw clearly that the intention of their adversaries was 
either to massacre them, or to drive them out of the 
town. They retreated in haste to the Ueberwasser 
quarter, and took up their position in the cemetery, 
planted cannons, placed bodies of armed men in the 
tower of the cathedral, and retook two of the city 
gates. They also arrested several of the senators who 
had joined the Anabaptist sect, but they had not the 
courage to lay their hands on the burgomaster, Til- 
beck, who was also of that party. Two of the 
preachers, Strahl and Vinnius, were caught, and were 
lodged in the tower of Ueberwasser church. 1 
-v Messages were sent to the villages and towns around 
announcing the state of affairs, and imploring assist- 
ance. The magistrates even wrote in the stress of 
their terror to the prince-bishop, asking him to come 
speedily to their rescue from a position of imminent 
1 Dorpius, f. 394. 



262 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

peril. Francis of Waldeck at once replied by letter,, 
promising to march with the utmost rapidity to 
Mtinster, and demanding that one of the gates might 
be opened to admit him. This letter was taken to 
Hermann Tilbeck ; but the burgomaster, intent on 
securing the triumph of the fanatics, with whom he was 
in league, suppressed the letter, and did not mention 
either its arrival or its contents to the senate. He, 
however, informed the Anabaptists of their danger, and 
urged them to come to terms with the Lutherans as 
speedily as possible. 

■^\At the same time the pastor, Fabricius, unable to 
restrain his religious prejudices, even in the face of 
danger, sped among the Lutheran ranks, inciting his 
followers against the Catholics, and urging them to 
make terms with the fanatics rather than submit to 
the bishop. " Beware," said he, " lest, in the event of 
your gaining a victory, the Papists should recover 
their power, for it is they who are the real cause of all 
these evils and disorders." 

~v Whilst the preacher was sowing discord in the ranks 
of the party of order, Rottmann and the two prophets, 
Matthisson and Bockelson, roused the enthusiasm of 
their disciples to the highest pitch, by announcing to 
them a glorious victory, and that the Father would 
render His elect invulnerable before the weapons of 
their adversaries. 

~ The Anabaptist women ran about the streets making 
the mostextraordinary contortions and prodigious leaps, 
crying out that they saw the Lord surrounded by a host 
of angelscomingtoexterminate the worshippers of Baal. 
1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 405 et seq. Monfort, " Tumult. Anabap.," 
p. 15 et seq. ; Bullinger, lib. ii. c. 8. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 263 

r — n Thus passed the night. At daybreak Knipper- 
dolling recommenced his course through the streets, 
uttering his doleful wail of " Repent, repent ! woe, 
woe ! " Approaching too near the churchyard wall of 
Ueberwasser, he was taken and thrown into the tower 
with Strahl and Vinnius. 
>^ At eight o'clock the drossar of Wollbeck arrived at 
the head of a troop of armed peasants to reinforce the 
party of order, and several ecclesiastics entered the 
town to inform the magistrates that the prince-bishop 
was approaching at the head of his cavalry. 

Before the lapse of many hours the city might have 
been pacified and order re-established, had it not been 
for the efforts of Tilbeck the burgomaster, and 
Fabricius the divine. Mistrust of their allies had now 
fully gained possession of the Lutherans, and the 
burgomaster took advantage of the hesitation to dis- 
miss the drossar of Wollbeck and his armed band, and 
to send to the prince, declining his aid. By his advice, 
also, the Anabaptists agreed to lay down their arms 
and make a covenant with the senate for the 
establishment of harmony. Hostages were given on 
either side and the prisoners were liberated. Peace 
was finally concluded on these conditions : 1st. That 
faith should be absolutely free. 2nd. That each party 
should support the other. 3rd. That all should obey 
the magistrates. 

The treaty having been signed, the two armed 
bodies separated, the cannons were fired into the air, 
the drossar of Wollbeck and the ecclesiastics withdrew, 
with grief at their hearts, predicting the approaching 
ruin of Munster. The prince-bishop was near the 



264 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

town with his troops when the fatal news was brought 
him, He shed tears of mortification, turned his horse 
and departed. 1 
-^ Peace was secured for the moment by this treaty, 
but order was not re-established. No sooner had the 
armed Anabaptists quitted the market-place than it 
swarmed with women who had received from Rottmann 
the sign of the New Covenant. " The madness of the 
pagan bacchantes," says the eye-witness of these 
scenes, Kerssenbroeck, 2 " cannot have surpassed that 
of these women. It is impossible to imagine a more 
terrible, crazy, indecent, and ridiculous exhibition than 
they made. Their conduct was so frenzied that one 
might have supposed them to be the furies of the 
poets. Some had their hair disordered, others ran 
about almost naked, without the least sense of shame ; 
others again made prodigious gambles, others flung 
themselves on the ground with arms extended in the 
shape of a cross ; then rose, clapped their hands, 
knelt down, and cried with all their might, invoking 
the Father, rolling their eyes, grinding their teeth, 
foaming at the mouth, beating their breasts, weeping, 
laughing, howling, and uttering the most strange inar- 
ticulate sounds Their words were stranger than 

their gestures. Some implored grace and light for us, 
others besought that we might be struck with blind- 
ness and damnation. All pretended that they saw in 
heaven some strange sights ; they saw the Father de- 
scending to judge their holy cause, myriads of angels, 
clouds of blood, black and blue fires falling upon the 

1 Same authorities; Sleidan, p. 411. 
" Kerssenbroeck, p. 495 et seq. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 265 

city, and above the clouds a rider mounted on a white 
horse, brandishing his sword against the impenitent 
who refused to turn from their evil ways. ... But the 
scene was constantly varying. Kneeling on the 
ground, and turning their eyes in one direction, they 
all at once exclaimed together, with joined hands, ' O 
Father ! Father ! O most excellent King of Zion, spare 
the people ! ' Then they repeated these words for 
some while, raising the pitch of their voices, till they 
attained to such a shriek that a host of pigs could not 
have produced a louder noise when assembled on 
market-day. 

" There was on the gable of one of the houses in the 
market-place a weathercock of a peculiar form, lately 
gilt, which just then caught the sun's rays and blazed 
with light. This weathercock caused the error of the 
women. They mistook it for the most excellent King 
of Zion. One of the citizens discovering the cause, 
climbed the roof of the house and removed this new 
sort of majesty. A calm at once succeeded to the up- 
roar ; ashamed and full of confusion, the visionaries 
dispersed and returned to their homes. Unfortunately 
the lesson did not restore them to their senses." 
— , Shortly after the treaty was signed, the burgomaster, 
Tilbeck, openly joined the Anabaptists, and was re- 
baptised with all his family by Rottmann. 1 

The more sensible and prudent citizens, including 
nearly all the Catholics and a good number of 
Lutherans, being well aware that the treaty was, in 
fact, a surrender of all authority into the hands of the 
fanatics, deserted the town in great numbers, carrying 
1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 496. 



266 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

with them all their valuables. The emigration began 
on 1 2th February. The Anabaptists ordered that 
neither weapons nor victuals should be carried out of 
the gates, and appointed a guard to examine the 
effects of all those who left the city. The emigration 
was so extensive, that in a few days several quarters 
of the town were entirely depopulated. 1 
— Then Rottmann addressed a circular letter to the 
Anabaptists of all the neighbouring towns to come and 
fill the deserted mansions from which the apostates 
had fallen. " The Father has sent me several pro- 
phets," said he, " full of His Spirit and endowed with 
exalted sanctity ; they teach the pure word of God, 
without human additions, and with sublime eloquence. 
Come then, with your wives and children, if you hope 
for eternal salvation ; come to the holy Jerusalem, to 
Zion, and to the new temple of Solomon. Come and 
assist us to re-establish the true worship of God, and 
to banish idolatry. Leave your worldly goods behind, 
you will find here a sufficiency, and in heaven a 
treasure." 2 

In response to this appeal, the Anabaptists streamed 
into the city from all quarters, from Holland, Friesland, 
Brabant, Hesse, Osnabriick, and from the neighbour- 
ing towns,, where the magistrates exerted themselves 
to suppress a sect which they saw imperilled the safety 
of the commonwealth. 

In a short while the deserted houses were peopled 
by these fanatics. Bernhard Krechting, pastor of 
Gildehaus, arrived at the head of a large portion of his 

1 Ibid. Dorpius, ff. 394-5. 
2 Kerssenbroeck, p. 502 ; Mencken, p. 1545. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 267 

parishioners. Hermann Regewart, the ex-Lutheran 
preacher of Warendorf, sought a home in the new- 
Jerusalem. Rich and well-born persons, bitten with 
the madness, arrived ; such were Peter Schwering and 
his wife, the wealthiest citizens of Coesfeld ; Werner 
von Scheiffort, a country gentleman ; the Lady von 
Becke with her three daughters, of whom the two 
eldest were broken nuns, and the youngest was be- 
trothed to the Lord of Dorlo ; and the Grograff of 
Schoppingen, Heinrich Krechting, with his wife, his 
children, and a number of the inhabitants of that town, 
with carts laden with their effects. The Grograff 
took up his abode in Kerssenbroeck's house, along 
with his family and servants, and, as the chronicler 
bitterly remarks, he took care to occupy the best part 
of the mansion. 1 

_^ Amongst those who escaped from the town were 
the syndic, Von Wyck, who had led the opposition 
against the bishop, and the burgomaster, Caspar 
Judenfeld. The latter retired to Hamm and was left 
unmolested, but Von Wyck had played too conspicu- 
ous a part to escape so easily. By the orders of the 
prince-bishop he was arrested and executed at 
Vastenau. 2 

Miinster now became the theatre of the wildest 
orgies ever perpetrated under the name of religion. It 
is apparently a law that mysticism should rapidly pass 
from the stage of asceticism into that of licence. At 
any rate, such has been the invariable succession of 
stages in every mystic society that is allowed un- 
checked to follow its own course. In the Roman 
1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 503. 2 Ibid. p. 505. 



268 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

'Church those thus psychologically affected are locked 
up in convents. The religious passion verges so 
closely on the sexual passion that a slight additional 
pressure given to it bursts the partition, and both are 
confused in a frenzy of religious debauch. The Ana- 
baptist fanatics were rapidly approaching this stage. 
The prophet Matthisson led the way by instituting a 
second baptism, administered only to the inner circle 
of the elect, which was called the baptism of fire. 
/-""xThe adepts were sworn to secrecy, and refused to 
explain the mode of administration. But public 
curiosity was aroused, and by learning the password, 
some were enabled to slip into the assembly and see 
what took place. Amongst these was a woman who 
was an acquaintance of Kerssenbroeck, and from 
whose lips he had an account of the rite. " Matthis- 
son," says he, "secretly assembled the initiated of 
both sexes during the night, in the vast mansion of 
Knipperdolling. When all were assembled, the 
prophet placed himself under a copper chandelier, 
hung in the centre of the ceiling, lighted with three 
tapers." He then made an instruction on the new 
revelation of the Divine will, which he pretended had 
been made to him, and the assembly became a scene 
of frantic orgies too horrible to be described. 
^_ The assemblies in which these abominations were 
perpetrated, prepared the way for the utter subver- 
sion of all the laws of decency and morality, which 
followed in the course of a few months. 

When Carnival arrived, a grand anti-Catholic pro- 
cession was organised, to incite afresh the hostility 
of the people to the ancient Church, its rites and 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 269. 

ceremonies. First, a company of maskers dressed 
like monks, nuns, and priests in their sacred vest- 
ments, led the way, capering and singing ribald 
songs. Then followed a great chariot, drawn by six 
men in the habits of the religious orders. On the 
box sat a fellow dressed as a bishop, with mitre and 
crosier, scourging on the labouring monks and friars. 
On the car was a man represented as dying, with a. 
priest leaning over him, a huge pair of spectacles on 
his nose, administering to the sick man the last sacra- 
ments of the Church, and addressing him in the most 
absurd manner, loudly, that the bystanders might 
hear and laugh at his farcical parody of the most 
sacred things of the old religion. The next car was 
drawn by a man dressed as a priest in surplice and: 
stole. The other cars contained groups suitable for 
turning into ridicule devotion to saints, belief in 
purgatory, the mass, &C. 1 
^— x The prophets now decided that it was necessary to 
be prepared in the event of a siege. They, therefore, 
commissioned the preacher Roll to visit Holland 
and raise the Anabaptists there, urge them to arm 
and to march to the defence of the New Jerusalem. 
Roll started from Mlinster on the 21st of February, 
but the Spanish Government in the Netherlands, 
alarmed at what was taking place in the capital of 
Westphalia, ordered a strict watch to be kept on the 
movements of the fanatics, and Roll was seized and 
executed at Utrecht. 

The next step taken by the prophets was to dis- 
charge the members of the senate from the perform -- 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 509. 



270 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

ance of their office, because they had been elected 
" according to the flesh," and to choose to fill their 
room another body of men " elected according to 
the Spirit." Bernard Knipperdolling and Gerhardt 
Kippenbroeck, both drapers, were appointed burgo- 
masters. 

One of the first acts of the new magistrates was to 
forbid the removal of furniture, articles of food, and 
money from the town, and to permit a general pillage 
of all the churches and convents in the city. The 
Anabaptist mob first attacked the religious houses, 
and carried off all the sacred vessels, the gold, the 
silver, and the vestments. Then they visited the 
chapel of St. Anthony, outside the gate of St. Maurice, 
and after having sacked it completely, they tore it 
down. They burnt the church of St. Maurice, then 
fell upon the church of St. Ledger, but had not 
the patience to complete its demolition. Thence 
they betook themselves to the cathedral, broke it 
open, and destroyed altars, with their beautiful sculp- 
tured and painted oak retables, miracles of delicate 
workmanship and Gothic beauty, the choir stalls, 
statues, paintings, frescoes, stained glass, organ, vest- 
ments, and carried off the chalices and ciboriums. 
The great clock, the pride of Mtinster, as that of 
Strasburg is of the Alsatian capital, was broken to 
pieces with hammers. A valuable collection of MSS., 
collected by the poet Rudolf Lange, and presented to 
the minister, together with the rest of the volumes in 
the library, were burned. Two noble paintings, one 
of the Blessed Virgin, the other of St. John the 
Baptist, on panel, by Franco, were split up and 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 271 

turned into seats for privies to the guard-house near 
the Jews' cemetery. The heads and arms were 
broken off the statues that could not be overthrown 
— statues of apostles, prophets, and sibyls, which 
decorated the interior of the cathedral and the neigh- 
bouring square. The tabernacle was broken open, 
and the Blessed Sacrament was danced and stamped 
on. The font was shattered with crowbars, in token 
of the abhorrence borne by the fanatics to infant 
baptism ; the tombs of the bishops and canons were 
destroyed, and the bodies torn from their graves, and 
their dust was scattered to the winds. 1 

But whilst this was taking place in Minister, 
Francis von Waldeck was preparing for war. On 
the 23rd February he held a meeting at Telgte to 
■consolidate plans, and now from all sides assistance 
came. The Elector of Cologne, the Duke of Cleves, 
even the Landgrave of Hesse, now exasperated at 
the ill-success of his endeavours to establish tran- 
quillity and to effect a compromise, the Duke of 
Brunswick, the Regent of Brabant, the Counts of 
Lippe and Berntheim, and many other nobles and 
cities sent soldiers, artillery, and munitions. 

The bishop appointed the generals and principal 
officers, then he made all the soldiers take an oath of 
fidelity to himself, and concluded with them an agree- 
ment, consisting of the following ten articles : 

1. The soldiers are to be faithful to the prince, and 
to obey their officers. 

2. The towns, arms, and munitions taken in war 
shall belong to the prince. 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 510 ; Sleidan, p. 411 ; Dorpius, f. 395. 



272 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

3. If, after the capture of the city, the prince-bishop 
permits its pillage by the troops, he shall not be 
obliged to pay them any prize-money. 

4. If the pillage be accorded, the town hall is not 
to be touched. 

5. The prince shall have half the plunder. 

6. The nobles, canons, and those who have escaped 
from the city shall be allowed the first bid for their 
articles when offered for sale. 

7. No fixtures shall be removed by the soldiery. 

8. After the capture of the town, the custody of 
the gates and ramparts shall be confided to those 
whom the prince-bishop shall appoint. 

9. The city taken, and its pillage permitted, the 
soldiers shall be allowed eight days for distribution 
and sale of the plunder. The soldiers shall receive 
their pay with punctuality. 

10. The heads of the revolt shall, as far as possible, 
be taken alive and delivered up to the bishop for a 
recompense. 1 

The Anabaptists were not afraid at these prepara- 
tions ; they made ready vigorously for the defence of 
the New Zion. As a preliminary, a body of five 
hundred burnt the convent of St. Maurice, outside the 
city gates, and levelled all the houses of the suburbs, 
which obscured the view, and might serve as cover 
for the besiegers. 

, — On the 26th February Matthisson preached in the 
afternoon to a congregation summoned by the dis- 
charge of a culverin. At the end of the sermon he 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 513 et scq. Sleidan, lib. x. pp. 412-3 ; 
Heresbach, p. 36. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 273 

assumed an inspired air, and announced that he had 
an important revelation to communicate. Having 
arrested the attention of his hearers, he said in a 
solemn tone, " The Father requires the purification of 
the New Jerusalem and of His temple ; for our re- 
public, which has begun so prosperously, cannot grow 
and endure if a prey to the confusion produced by 
the presence of impious sects. My advice is that we 
kill without further delay the Lutherans, the Papists, 
and all those who have not the right faith, that there 
may remain in Zion but one body, one society, which 
is truly Christian, and which can offer to the Father 
a pure and well-pleasing worship. There is but one 
way of preserving the faithful from the contagion of 
the impious, and that is to sweep them off the face of 
•the earth. Nothing is easier than the execution of 
this scheme. We form the majority in a strong 
city, abundantly supplied -vith all necessaries ; there 
is nothing to fear from within or from without." 1 
"This suggestion would have been carried into im- 
mediate execution by the frenzied sectarians, had it 
not been for the intervention of Knipperdolling, who, 
fearing that a general massacre of Lutherans and 
•Catholics would combine the forces of the Smalkald 
.union and of the Imperialists against the city, urgently 
insisted on milder measures. " Let us be content," 
said he, " with driving, to-morrow, out of the city those 
miserable creatures who refuse the sign of the New 
Covenant ; thus shall we thoroughly purge the floor 
of the Lord, and nothing that is impure will remain in 
the New Jerusalem." 2 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 516. -Ibid, p, 517 ; Sleidan, p. 412. 

S 



274 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

^ This advice was accepted, and it was unanimously 
decided that the morrow should witness the expulsion 
of Catholics and Lutherans. The 27th Feburary 
was a bitterly cold day. A hard frost had set in, 
the north wind blew, cutting to the bone all exposed 
to the blast, the country was white with snow, and 
the streams were crusted over with ice. At every 
gate was a double guard ; the squares were thronged 
with armed fanatics, and in and out among them 
passed the prophets, staff in hand, uttering maledictions 
on the Lord's enemies, and words of encouragement 
to those sealed on their brows and hands. 

^ Matthisson sought out those who did not belong 

to the sect, and with menacing gestures and flaring 

eyes called them to repentance before the door was 

shut. " Turn ye, turn ye, sinners," he cried in his. 

harsh tones. " Judgment is preparing for you. The 

elements are in league against you ; your iniquities 

have made nature rise to scourge you. The sword of 

the Lord's anger is hung above your heads. Turn, 

ye sinners, and receive the sign of our alliance, that 

ye be not cast out from the chosen people ! " Then 

he flung himself down in the great square, and called 

on the Father ; and lying with arms extended on the 

frozen ground, and his face pinched with cold turned 

towards' the sky, he fell into a trance. The Anabaptists 

knelt around him, and lifting their hands to heaven 

besought the Father to reveal His will by the mouth 

of the prophet whom He had sent. 

— ^ Then Matthisson, slowly returning from his ecstasy, 

like one awaking out of a dream, said, " This is the 

will and order of the Father : the miscreants, unless 



r. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 275 

they be converted and be baptised, must be expelled 
this place. This holy city shall be purified of all that 
is unclean, for the conversation of the ungodly 
corrupts and defiles the people of God. Away with 
the sons of Esau ! this place, this New Zion, this 
habitation belongs to the sons of Jacob, to the true 
Israel." 

The enthusiasm of Matthisson communicated itself 
to the assembly. The Anabaptists separated to 
sweep the streets, sword and pike in hand, and drove 
the ungodly beyond their walls, shouting, " The lot is 
ours ; the tares must be gathered from among the 
wheat ; the goats from the sheep ; the unholy from 
the godly ; away, away ! " Doors were burst open, 
and the fanatics invaded every house, driving before 
them men, women, and children, from garret and 
cellar, wherever concealed, in spite of their cries and 
entreaties. Men of all professions, men and women 
of every age were banished ; they were not allowed 
to take anything with them. The sword of the Lord 
was brandished against them ; the hale and the in- 
firm, the master and the servant, none were spared. 
Those who lagged were beaten ; those who were sick 
and unable to fly were carried to the market-place 
to be rebaptised by Rottmann. 

Through the gates streamed the terrified crowd, 
shivering, half clothed, mothers clasping their babes 
to their breasts, children sustaining between them 
their aged parents, all blue with cold, as the fierce wind 
thick strewn with sleet rushed upon them at the 
corners, and over the bare plain without the city walls, 
growling and cruel, as though it too were wrought up 



276 - HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

into religious frenzy, and came as an auxiliary to the 
savage work. 

/"^Thousands traversed the frozen plans, uncertain 
whither to fly for refuge, uttering piteous cries 
lamentations, or low moans ; whilst from the walls 
of the heavenly city thundered a salvo of joy, and 
the Anabaptists shouted, because the Lord's day of 
vengeance had come, and the millennium was set up 
on earth. 

_^ " Never," says Kerssenbroeck, " never did I see 
anything more afflicting. The women carried their 
naked nurslings in their arms, and in vain sought rags 
wherewith to clothe them ; miserable children, hang- 
ing to their fathers' coats, ran barefooted, uttering 
piercing cries ; old people, bent by age, tottered 
along calling down God's vengeance on their 
persecutors ; lastly, some sick women driven from 
their beds during the pangs of maternity fell in labour 
in the snow, deprived of all human succour." x 
-—Amongst those expelled was Fabricius, the 
Lutheran divine, who escaped in disguise. He was 
so greatly hated by the sectarians, that had he been 
recognised, he would not have been suffered to quit 
the city alive. 

- The Frau Werneche, a rich lady, too stout to walk, 
and unable to find a conveyance, was obliged to 
remain in MtLnster. Rottmann insisted on her receiv- 
ing the sign of the New Covenant. 

" I have been baptised already, as were my 
ancestors," said the good woman. Rottmann replied 
that if she persisted in her impiety she must be slain 
1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 5222. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 277 

with the sword, lest the wrath of the Father should 
be kindled against the Holy City. The poor lady, 
who had no desire for martyrdom, cried out, im- 
patiently, " Well, then, be it so ! baptise me in the 
name of all the devils of hell, for I have already been 
baptised in the name of God." Rottmann, not very 
particular, administered the rite, and the stout lady 
remained in Mtinster. 

The apostle now sent letters into all the country, 
announcing the glad tidings of the approaching reign 
of Christ on earth, and inviting the Anabaptists of the 
neighbourhood to flock into Zion. One of these 
epistles of Rottmann has been preserved. 1 
" Bernard, servant of Jesus Christ in His Church of 
Mtinster, salutes affectionately his very dear 
brother Henry Schlachtschap. Grace and peace 
from God, and the strength of the Holy Spirit, 
be with you and with all the faithful. 
" Dear Brother in Christ, — 

" The marvellous works of God are so great and 
so diverse that it would not be possible for me to 
describe them all, had I a hundred tongues. I am, 
therefore, unable to do so with my single pen. The 
Lord has splendidly assisted us. He has delivered 
us out of the hands of our enemies, and has driven 
them from the city. Seized by a panic terror, they 
fled in multitudes. This is the beginning of what the 
Lord announced by His prophets — that all the saints 
would assemble in this New Zion. These prophets 
have charged me to write to you, that you may order 
all the brethren to hasten to us with all the gold and 
1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 520 ; Dorpius, f. 395. 



278 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

silver they can collect ; as for their other goods, let 
them be left to the sisters, who will dispose of them, and 
then join us here also. Beware of doing anything 
after the flesh ; do all in the Spirit. The rest by 
word of mouth. Health in the Lord." 

This appeal had all the more success because several 
executions had taken place at Wollbeck and Bevergern 
and other places, together with confiscation of goods, 
and this had struck alarm into the Anabaptists 
scattered throughout the principality. Numbers, 
therefore, answered the appeal, and went up, as the 
tribes of the Lord, to Jerusalem, out of Leyden, 
Coesfeld, Warendorf, and Groningen. The vacated 
houses were re-occupied, the Mtinster Baptists select- 
ing for themselves the best. Knipperdolling, Kippen- 
broeck, and others, took possession of the residences 
of the canons ; servants installed themselves in the 
dwellings of their masters as if they were their own ; 
and the deserted monasteries were given up as hostels 
to receive the influx from the country, till houses 
could be provided for them. 1 

4 On the 28th February, Francis von Waldeck left 
Telgte at the head of his army and invested the 
capital. Batteries were planted, seven camps were 
established for the infantry, and six for the cavalry 
around Miinster. These camps were in connection 
with one another, for mutual support in the event of 
a sortie, and were rapidly fortified. 
A- Thus began the siege which was to • last sixteen 
months minus four days, during which a multitude of 
untrained, undisciplined fanatics, commanded^ by a 
1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 523. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 279 

Dutch tailor-innkeeper, held out against a numerous 
and well-armed force. But there was an element of 
strength in the besieged that lacked in the besiegers. 
Those within the walls were members of a vast 
•confraternity, which ramified over Germany, Switzer- 
land, and the Low Countries, its members bound to- 
gether by a common enthusiasm, in more or less 
direct relation with the chiefs who commanded in the 
Westphalian capital. In spite of the siege, news from 
without was constantly brought into the city, and 
messengers were sent out to stir up the members of 
the society in other countries and provinces to rise 
and march to the relief of the city which, they all 
believed, was destined to be their religious capital. 
The Mtinster brothers looked for a speedy deliverance 
wrought by the efficacy of the arms of their brothers 
in Holland, Juliers, Cleves, and Brabant. The Low 
Countries swarmed with Anabaptists who had 
organised communities in Amsterdam, Leyden, 
Utrecht, Haarlem, Antwerp, and Ghent ; they had 
arms stored in cellars and garrets, and waited only the 
proper moment to rise in a body, massacre their oppo- 
nents, and deliver the Holy City. Several attempts 
to rise were made, but the vigilance of the Spanish 
Government in the Netherlands prevented the rising ; 
and the hopes of the besieged were never realised. 
^^On the other hand, the army of the prince-bishop 
was composed of mercenaries, of soldiers from different 
provinces and principalities, speaking different dialects, 
with different interests, and differing also in faith. 
The Lutheran troops would not cordially unite with 
the Catholics, and the latter mistrusted their Pro- 



280 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

testant allies, whose sympathies they believed lay 
with the Anabaptist besieged. And the head of the 
whole army was a Catholic prelate with Lutheran 
proclivities, who knew nothing of war, had an empty 
purse, and desired to reduce his own subjects by the 
aid of foreign mercenaries, with little expense to him- 
self, and damage to his subjects. 

The Anabaptists organised their defence with pru- 
dence. They elected captains and standard-bearers, 
and divided all the citizens capable of bearing arms 
into regiments and companies. Every one was given 
his place and his functions, and it was decided that 
the magistrates should be required to mount guard 
when it came to their turn. Boys were drilled and 
taught the use of the arquebus ; women prepared 
brands steeped in pitch and sulphur to fling at the 
enemy, and they melted lead from the roofs into- 
bullets. Mines were dug and charged with powder,, 
fresh bastions were thrown up, and curtains were 
erected before the gates, into which were built the 
tombs and sarcophagi of the bishops and canons. 1 

The newly-elected senate, though composed of the 
most zealous Anabaptists, was powerless before 
Matthisson. A sect governed by the inspiration of 
the moment, professing to be guided by the Spirit 
speaking through the mouths of prophets, ready to 
spring into the maddest excesses at the dictates of 
visionaries, could not long submit to the government 
of a magistracy whose power was temporal. The 
way was rapidly preparing for the establishment of a 
spiritual despotism. 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 531 et seq.; Hast, p. 344. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 281 

^-y It was in vain for the senate to pass an order with- 
out the sanction of Matthisson, in vain for them to 
attempt resistance to the execution of his mandates. 
One day he announced that it was the will of the 
Father that all the goods of the citizens who had fled, 
or had been expelled, should be collected into one 
place, that they might be distributed amongst the 
saints, as every man had need. He thereupon des- 
patched men to bring together all that was left behind 
in the city by the refugees, and convey' the articles 
to houses which he designated in every parish. He 
was promptly obeyed. Garments, linen, beds, furni- 
ture, crockery, food, wine — everything was brought 
away in carts. The jewels, the gold, and the silver, 
were deposited in the chancery. Then the prophet 
ordered three days of prayer to be instituted, " that 
God might reveal to him the persons chosen by Him 
to keep guard over the accumulated treasure." 1 
>^s When the three days were at an end, Matthisson 
announced that the Father had indicated to him 
seven individuals who were to be the deacons to serve 
tables in the New Jerusalem. He therefore ap- 
pointed the men to distribute out of the common 
store to those who needed that which would satisfy 
their necessities. 2 
yr It must not, however, be supposed that, with the 
/ expulsion of the impious from the holy city, all 
opposition had disappeared. A very considerable 
number of citizens, shopkeepers, and merchants, rather 
than desert their houses, abandon their goods to 
pillage, and lose their trade, had consented to be re- 
1 Kerssenbroeck ; Dorpius, f. 395. " 2 Ibid. p. 585. 



282 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

baptised. The reign of the prophets was becoming 
to them daily more irksome. A blacksmith, named 
Hubert Rtischer, or Trutling, had the courage to 
oppose Matthisson, to charge him with being a false 
prophet, and an impostor. 1 The prophet, feeling the 
danger of his position, saw that a measure, decided 
and terrible, must be adopted to suppress the murmurs, 
and frighten those who desired to shake off his yoke. 
" Judgment must begin at the house of God," said 
Matthisson ; and he ordered the immediate execution 
of the smith. Tilbeck, the burgomaster, and Re- 
decker, a magistrate, interposed, but were, by order 
of the prophet, cast into prison. Then Bockelson, 
bursting through the crowd, announced with frantic 
gesture that the Father had commissioned him to 
slay with the sword he bore all those who withstood 
the will of Heaven as interpreted by the prophets 
whom He had sent. Then brandishing his weapon, 
he rushed upon the blacksmith, but Matthisson fore- 
stalled him, by running his halbert through the body 
of the unfortunate man. Finding that he still 
breathed, he despatched him with a carbine, crying, 
" So perish all who are guilty of similar crimes." 
Then, at his command, the multitude chanted a hymn 
of praise, and dispersed, silent and trembling, to their 
homes. 2 

Matthisson took immediate advantage of the power 
this bold stroke had given him to deal another blow. 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 1535 et seq.; Monfortius, p. 19; Sleidan 
and Dorpius call the man Truteling ; Sleidan, p. 412 ; Dorpius, 
f. 395 b. 

2 Monfortius, p. 19. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 283 

When the treasure of the enemies of Zion had been 
confided to the care of deacons, the faithful had kept 
their own goods. But this was to be no longer toler- 
ated. The prophet issued a decree, requiring all, old 
and young, male and female, under pain of death, to 
bring all their possessions in gold and silver, under 
whatever form it might be, into the treasury ; " Be- 
cause," said he, " such things profit not the true 
Christian." 

^ The majority of the citizens obeyed, in fear and 
trembling ; but many buried their vessels and orna- 
ments of precious metal, and declared that they 
possessed no jewels. 1 However, the amount of money, 
chains, rings, brooches, and cups, brought together 
was very considerable. It was placed in the chan- 
cery, and confided to four of Matthisson's most de- 
voted adherents. 
so A few days after, he summoned all the inhabitants 
into the Cathedral square, where, in a long discourse, 
he announced that the wrath of God was excited 
against those who had allowed themselves to be re- 
baptised on the 26th of February, out of human 
considerations, because they did not desire to leave 
their homes and their effects, or out of fear ; and he 
advised them all to betake themselves to the church 
of St. Lambert, to entreat the Father to pardon them 
for having lied to the Holy Ghost, and soiled by their 
presence the city of the children of God ; " and if the 
Father does not remit your offence," concluded he 
in a loud and terrible voice, "you must perish by the 
sword of the Just One." 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 538. 



234 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

^-.In an agony of terror, the unfortunate citizens 
crowded the church, and the doors were fastened be- 
hind them. They passed several hours within, weep- 
ing, groaning, and deploring their lot, a prey to 
inexpressible terror. 1 

At length Matthisson entered, accompanied by 
armed men, and the prisoners, supposing they were 
about to be slaughtered, fell at his feet and embraced 
his knees, entreating him, with tears, as the favourite 
of God, to mediate with Him and obtain their pardon. 
The prophet replied that he must consult the Father ; 
he knelt down, and fell into an ecstasy. After a few 
moments he rose, leaped with joy, and declared that 
the Father, though greatly irritated, had granted his 
prayer, and suffered the penitents to live. Then the 
poor creatures were purified, hymns of praise were 
sung, and they were pronounced admitted into the 
household of the true Israel. The doors were thrown 
open, and they were allowed to disperse. 
— On the 15 th of March, a new decree appeared,, 
forbidding the faithful to possess, read, or look at any 
books except the Bible, and requiring all the books, 
in print or MS., and all legal documents that were 
found in the town, to be brought to the Cathedral 
square, and there to be consigned to the flames. 
Thus perished many a treasure of inappreciable 
value. 
/* In the meantime the appeal of Rottmann to the 
Anabaptists of the Low Countries to come and deliver 
Zion had produced its effect. Thousands assembled 
in the neighbourhood of Amsterdam, crossed the 
1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 539. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 285 

Zuyder Zee, landed at Zwoll, and marched towards 
Miinster, pillaging and burning churches and convents. 
But Baron Schenk von Teutenburg, imperial lieu- 
tenant, met them, utterly routed them, cut to pieces a 
large number, and made many prisoners. 1 

^— The prophets of Miinster, warned of their advance, 
but ignorant of their dispersion, reckoned on an 
approaching deliverance, and continued their follies. 
On Good Friday, April 3, 1534, they organised a 
general festival, with bells pealing, and a mock pro- 
cession carrying candles. The treaty concluded with 
the prince-bishop, through the intervention of Philip 
of Hesse, was attached to the tail of an old horse, 
and the beast was driven out of the gate of St. Maurice 
in the direction of the enemy's camp. 2 

**-• Easter approached, and with it great things were 
expected. A rumour circulated that a mighty de- 
liverance of Israel would be wrought on the Feast of 
the Resurrection. Whether Matthisson started the 
report or was carried away by it, it is impossible to 
decide; but it is certain that, on the eve, he announced 
in an access of enthusiasm, after a trance, that he had 
received orders from the Father to put to flight the 
armies of the aliens with a handful of true believers. 3 

Accordingly, on the morrow, carrying a halbert, he 
headed a few zealots who shared his confidence; the 
gate of St. Ludgar was thrown open, and he rushed 
forth with his followers upon the army of the prince- 
bishop ; whilst the ramparts were crowded by the 
inhabitants of Miinster, shouting and praying, and 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 541, 542 ; Bullinger, ii. c. 10. 

2 Ibid. p. 542. 3 Ibid, 54.2 ; Hast, p. 348. 



286 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

expecting to see a miracle wrought in his favour. 
But he had not advanced very far before a troop of 
the enemy surrounded his little band, and, in spite of 
a desperate resistance, he and his companions were 
cut to pieces. 1 

-~x John Bockelson, seeing that the confidence of the 
Anabaptists was shaken by the failure of this predic- 
tion and the fall of the great prophet, lost not a 
moment in establishing his own supremacy. He 
called all the people together, and declared to them 
that Matthisson had died by the just judgment of 
God, because he had disobeyed the commandment of 
the Father to go forth with a very small handful, and 
because he had relied on his own strength instead of 
on Divine aid. " But," added he, " he neglected all 
those precautions he ought to have taken, solemn 
prayer and fasting, after the example of Judith ; and 
he forgot that victory is in the hands of God ; he was 
proud and vain, therefore was he forsaken of the 
Lord. His terrible end was revealed to me eight 
days ago by the Holy Ghost ; for, as I was sleeping 
in the house of Knipperdolling, after having meditated 
on the Divine Law, Matthisson appeared to me 
pierced through by the lance of an armed man, with 
all his bowels gushing forth. Then was I frightened 
beyond measure at this terrible spectacle; but the 
armed man said to me, ' Fear not, well-beloved son of 
the Father, but be faithful to thy calling, for the judg- 
ment of God will fall upon Matthisson ; and when he 
is dead, marry his widow.' These words cast me into 

1 Kerssenbroeck, 542 ; Sleidan, p. 413 ; Bullinger, lib. ii. 
c. 9 ; Heresbach, p. 138 ; Buissierre, p. 310. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 287 

profound amazement, for I have already a legitimate 
wife at Leyden. Nevertheless, that I might have a 
witness worthy of confidence to this extraordinary 
revelation, I trusted the secret to Knipperdolling ; he 
is present, let him be brought forth." 1 
^-v Thereupon Knipperdolling stepped forward and 
declared by oath that Bockelson had spoken the 
truth, and he mentioned the place, the day, and 
the hour when the revelation was confided to 
him. 

From that moment Bockelson passed with the 
people not only as a prophet, but as a favourite of 
Heaven, one specially chosen of the Father, and was 
held in far higher estimation, accordingly, than had 
been the fallen prophet. He was seized with inspira- 
tion. On the 9th of April, he declared that " the 
Father ordered, under pain of incurring his dire wrath, 
that every exalted thing should be laid low, and that 
the work was to begin at the church steeples." Con- 
sequently three architects of the town were ordered 
to demolish them. They succeeded in pulling down 
all the spires in Miinster. That of Ueberwasser 
church was singularly beautiful. It was reduced to a 
stump ; and the modern visitor to the ancient West- 
phalian capital has cause to deplore its loss. The 
towers were only saved to be used as positions for 
cannon to play upon the besigers. 2 
s\ Bockelson had another vision, which served to con- 
solidate his power. " The Father," said he, " had 
appeared to him, and had commanded him to appoint 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 543 ; Monfort, p. 24. 
2 Bullinger, ii. c. 8 ; Sleidan, p. 271 ; Dorpius, f. 396. 



288 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

Knipperdolling to be the executioner of the new 
republic." 

-n This was not precisely satisfactory to Knipperdol- 
ling ; he aimed at a higher office, but he dissembled 
his irritation, and accepted the sword offered him by 
John of Leyden with apparent transports of joy. 1 
Four under-executioners were named to assist him, 
and to accompany him wherever he went. 
— The nomination of Knipperdolling was the prelude 
to other important changes. Bockelson aspired to 
exercise absolute power, without opposition or con- 
trol. To arrive at his ends, a wild prophetic scene 
was enacted. He ran, during the night, through the 
streets of Miinster stark naked, uttering howls and 
crying, " Ye men of Israel who inhabit this holy Zion! 
fear the Lord, and repent for your past lives. Turn 
ye, turn ye ! The glorious King of Zion, surrounded 
by multitudes of angels, is about to descend and judge 
the world, at the peal of His terrible trumpet. Turn, 
ye blind ones, and be converted." 2 

Exhausted with his run and his shouts, and satis- 
fied with having thoroughly alarmed the inhabitants, 
he returned to the house of Knipperdolling, who was 
also in a paroxysm of inspiration, foaming, leaping, 
rolling on the ground, and performing many other 
extravagant actions. Bockelson, on entering, cast 
himself down in a corner and pretended to have lost 
the power of speech ; and as the crowd, assembled 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 545 ; Heresbach, p. 139 ; Sleidan, p. 
413 ; Dorpius, f. 396. 

2 Kerssenbroeck, p. 596; Monfort, pp. 25, 26; Heresbach, p. 
99 et seq. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 289 

round him, asked him the meaning of what had taken 
place, he signed to them to bring him tablets, on 
which he wrote, "By the order of the Father, I remain 
dumb for three days." 

y^Kt the expiration of this period he convoked the 
people, and declared to them that the Father had 
revealed to him that Israel must have a new constitu- 
tion, with new laws and new magistrates, divinely 
appointed. The former magistracy had been elected 
by men, but the new one was to be designated by the 
Holy Ghost. Bockelson then dissolved the senate, 
and, as the mouthpiece of God, he declared the names 
of the new officers, to the number of twelve, who were 
to bear the title of The Elders of the Tribes of Israel, 
in whose hands all power, temporal and spiritual, was 
to be placed. Those appointed were, as might have 
been expected, the prophet's most devoted adherents. 1 
Hermann Tilbeck, the old burgomaster, was brought 
out of prison, and it was announced to him that he 
was to be of the number of elders; but perhaps a little 
cooled in this enthusiasm by his sojourn in chains, he 
burst into tears, and in accents of humility prayed, 
" Oh, Father ! I am not worthy so great an honour ; 
give me strength and light to govern with wisdom." 
^ Rottmann, who, since the arrival of the prophet, had 
played but a subordinate part, judged the occasion 
favourable for thrusting himself into prominence. He 
therefore preached a long sermon, in which he de- 
clared that God was the author of the new constitu- 
tion, and then, calling the elders before him by name, 
he committed to each a drawn sword, with the words, 
1 Dorpius, f. 396 b. 






290 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

--^Receive with this weapon the right of life or death 
which the Father has ordered me to confer upon you, 
and use the sword conformably to the Lord's will." 
Then the proceedings closed with the multitude sing- 
ing the Gloria in excelsis in German, on their knees. 

The senate resigned its functions without apparent 
regret or opposition, and the twelve elders assumed 
the plenitude of power. They abolished the laws 
and formulated new ones, published edicts, resolved 
difficulties, judged causes, subject to no control save 
the will of the prophet ; but that will they regarded 
as identical with the Divine will, as superior to all 
law, and every one obeyed its smallest require- 
ments. 

Immediately after the installation of the govern- 
ment, an edict in ten parts was published. 1 The first 
part, divided into thirteen articles, contained the 
moral law; the second part, in thirty-three articles, 
contained the civil law. 
^_ The first part forbade thirteen crimes under pain of 
death : blasphemy, disobedience, adultery, impurity, 
avarice, theft, fraud, lying and slander, idle conversa- 
tion, disputes, anger, envy, and discontent against the 
government. 

The second part required every citizen to conform 
his life and belief to the Word of God; to fulfil exactly 
his duties to others and to the State. It ordered a 
strict system of vigilance against night surprises by 
the enemy, and required one of the elders to sit in 
rotation every day as judge to try cases brought 

1 Kerssenbroeck, pt, ii. pp. 1-9; Monfortius, pp. 26, 27; 
Hast, p, 352 et seq. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 291 

before him ; also, that whatsoever was decided by the 
elders as necessary for the welfare of the New 
Jerusalem should be announced to the assembly- 
general of Israel, by the prophet John of Leyden, 
servant of the Most High; that Bernard Knipper- 
dolling, the executioner, should denounce to the elders 
the crimes committed within the holy city ; and that 
he might exercise his office with greater security he 
was never to go forth unaccompanied by his four 
assistants. 

„^It ordered that henceforth repasts should be taken 
publicly and in common ; that every one should 
accept what was set before him, should eat it modestly, 
in silence ; that the brothers and the sisters should 
eat at separate tables ; and that, during the meal, 
portions of the Old Testament should be read to 
them. 

-n The next articles named the individuals who were 
to execute the offices of butcher, shoemaker, smith, 
tailor, brewer, and the like, to the Lord's people. Two 
articles forbade the introduction of new fashions, and 
the wearing of garments with holes in them. Article 
XXIX. ordered every stranger belonging to another 
religion, who should enter the city of Miinster, to be 
examined by Knipperdolling. No communication of 
any sort with strangers was permitted to the children 
of Zion. 

— - Article XXXII. forbade, under pain of death, deser- 
tion from the military service, or exchange of com- 
panies without the sanction of the elders. 

Article XXXIII. required that in the event of a 
decease, all the goods and chattels of the defunct 



292 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

should be taken to Knipperdolling, who would convey 
them to the elders, and they would distribute them as 
they judged fitting. 

f^ That some of these provisions were indicative of 
great prudence is not to be doubted. All food having 
been seized upon and being served out publicly to all 
the citizens alike, and in moderation, the capabilities 
of prolonging the defence were greatly increased ; and 
the military dictatorship and strict discipline within 
the city maintained by the prophet, enabled the 
Anabaptists to preserve an invulnerable front to an 
enemy torn by faction and with divided responsi- 
bilities. 

/-*«, To increase the disaffection and party strife in the 
hostile camp, the people of Miinster sent arrows 
amongst the besiegers, to which were attached letters,, 
one of which has been preserved by Kerssenbroeck. 1 
It is an exhortation to the enemy to beware lest by 
attacking the people of the Lord, who held to the 
pure Word of God, they should be regarded by him as 
in league with Antichrist, and urging them to repent- 
ance. 

-> Besiegers and besieged heaped on each other 
reciprocal insults, exhibiting themselves to one another 
in postures more expressive of contempt than decent. 2 
A chimney-sweep, named William Bast, had about 
this time a vision ordering him to burn the cities of 
the ungodly. Bast announced his mission to the 
elders and to the prophet, and was bidden go forth in 
the Lord's name. He accordingly left Miinster, eluded 
the vigilance of the enemy's sentinals, and reached 
1 Kerssenbroeck, pt. ii. p. 9. "Ibid, pp. 11, 12. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 293 

Wollbeck, where was the powder magazine of the 
Episcopal army. He fired several houses, and the 
flames spread, but were fortunately extinguished 
before they reached the powder. Bast had escaped 
to Dreusteindorf, where also he attempted to execute 
his mission, but was caught, brought back to Wollbeck, 
and burnt alive. 

rln the meantime various sorties had taken place, in 
which the besiegers suffered, being caught off their 
guard. On May 22nd, the prince-bishop, finding the 
siege much more serious than he had anticipated, be- 
gan to bombard the town ; but as fast as the walls 
gave way, they were repaired by the women and 
children at night. 

-y A general assault was resolved on for the 26th May ; 
of this the besieged were forewarned by their spies. 
Unfortunately for the investing army, the soldiers 
of Guelders got drunk on the preceding day in anti- 
cipation of their victory,and marched reeling and shout- 
ing against the city as the dusk closed in. The Ana- 
baptists manned the walls, and easily repulsed their 
tipsy assailants ; but in the meantime the rest of the 
army, observing the march of the men of Guelders, 
and hearing the discharge of firearms, rushed to their 
assistance, without order ; the Mlinsterians rallied, 
repulsed them with great carnage, and they fled in 
confusion to the camp. The Anabaptists had only 
lost two officers and eight soldiers in the fray; and 
their success convinced them that they were under 
the special providence of God, which had rendered 
them invincible. 1 They, therefore, repaired their walls 
1 Kerssenbroeck, pp. 15, 16; Sleidan, p. 413. 



294 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

with energy, erected several additional bastions, and 
continued their sorties. 
/--\On the 30th May, a party of the fanatics issued from a 
subterraneous passage upon the sentinels opposite the 
Judenfeld gate, spiked nineteen cannon, and laid a train 
of gunpowder from the store, which they reached, to 
the mouth of their passage. The troops stationed 
within sight marched hastily to repulse the sortie,, 
when the train was fired, the store exploded, and a 
large number of soldiers were destroyed. 1 

1 r~ The prince-bishop next adopted an antiquated 
expedient, which proved singularly inefficacious. He 
raised a huge bank against the walls, by requisitioning 
the services of the peasants of the country round. 
The besieged poured a shower of bullets amongst the 
unfortunate labourers, who perished in great numbers, 
and the mole remained unfinished. 2 

. Francis of Waldeck, discouraged, and at the end of 

ft 

his resources, sent his deputies to the Diet >of Neuss 
on the 25th June, to announce to the Archbishop of 
Cologne and the Duke of Juliers his failures, and to 
ask for additional troops. The two princes replied 
that they would not abandon their ally in his diffi- 
culties, and they promised to bear a part of the cost 
of the siege, advanced 40,000 florins for the purchase 
of gunpowder, promised to despatch forces to his 
assistance, and sent at once prudent advisers. 3 The 
prince was, in fact, utterly incompetent as a general 
and incompetent as a bishop. The pastoral staff has 
a crook at the head and a spike at the bottom. Litur- 

1 Kerssenbroeck, pp. 15, 16. 2 Ibid, p. 21. 
3 Hast, p. 357; Sleidan, p. 413. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MONSTER. 295 

giologists assure us that this signifies the mode in 
which a bishop should exercise discipline — the gentle 
he should restrain or direct with mercy, the rebellious 
he should treat with severity. To the former he 
should be lenient, with the latter prompt. Francis of 
Waldeck wielded gracefully and effectively neither 
end of his staff. 

He shortly incurred a risk, and but for the fidelity 
of one of his subjects in Mlinster, he would have fallen 
a victim to assassination. 

/~~~A. young Anabaptist maiden, named Hilla Phnicon, 
of singular beauty, conceived the notion that she had 
been called by God to be the Judith of this new 
Bethulia, and was to take the head from off the 
shoulders of the great, soft, bungling Holophernes, 
Francis of Waldeck. 1 

n Rottmann, Bockelson, and Knipperdolling en- 
couraged the girl in her delusion, and urged her not 
to resist the inspirations of the Father. Accordingly, 
on the 1 6th June, Hilla dressed herself in the most 
beautiful robes she could procure, adorned her hair 
with pearls, and her arms with bracelets, selecting 
from the treasury of the city whatever articles she 
judged most conducive to the end ; the treasury being 
for the purpose placed at her disposal by order of the 
prophet. Furnished with a linen shirt steeped in 
deadly poison, which she had herself made, as an 
offering to the prince, she left Mtinster, and delivered 
herself up into the hands of the drossar of Wollbeck, 
who, after having dispoiled her of her jewels, ques- 
tioned her as to her object in deserting the city. She 
1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 26 et seq. 



296 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

replied with the utmost composure, that she was a 
native of Holland, and that she had lived in Miinster 
with her husband, till the change of religion had so 
disgusted her that she could endure it no longer, and 
that she had fled on the first opportunity, and that 
her husband would follow her on a suitable occasion. 
" It is to ask pardon for him that I am come," said 
she ; " and he will be able to indicate to his highness 
a means of entering the city without loss." 

^ The perfect self-possession of the lady convinced 
the drossar of her sincerity, and he promised to intro- 
duce her to the prince at Iburg within two days. 
Everything seemed to favour the adventuress ; but 
an unexpected event occurred on the 18th, the day 
appointed for the audience, which spoiled the 
plot. 

The secret had been badly kept, and it was a 
matter of conversation, hope, and prayer in Miinster. 
A citizen named Ramers, who had remained in the 
city, and had been rebaptised rather than lose his busi- 
ness and give up his house to pillage, having heard of it, 
escaped from the town on the 18th, and revealed the 
projects of Hilla to one of the generals of the besieg- 
ing army. The unfortunate young woman was 
thereupon put to the question, and confessed. She 
was conducted to Bevergern and decapitated. At the 
moment when she was being prepared for execution, 
she assured the bystanders that they would not be 
able to take her life, for the prophet John " chosen 
friend of the Father, had assured her that she would 
return safe and sound to Zion." 

^ The bishop sent for Ramers, provided for his 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF 2IUNSTER. 297 

necessities, and ordered that his house and goods 
should be spared in the event of the capture of 
Miinster. 

_^ As soon as one danger disappeared, another rose 
up in its place. The letters attached to arrows fired 
by the Anabaptists into the hostile camp, as well as 
their secret agents, had wrought their effect. The 
Lutheran auxiliaries from Meissen complained that 
they were called to fight against the friends of the 
Gospel, and on the night of the 30th June they 
deserted in a body. 1 Other soldiers escaped into 
Miinster and offered their arms to the Anabaptists. 
Disaffection was widely spread. Disorder, misunder- 
standings, and ill-concealed hatred reigned in the 
camp. The besieged reckoned among their assailants 
numerous and warm friends, and were regularly in- 
formed of all the projects of the general. Their 
emissaries bearing letters to the Anabaptists in other 
territories easily traversed the ranks of the investing 
army, and when they had accomplished their mission 
they returned with equal ease to the gates of Miinster, 
which opened to receive them. 

— One of the soldiers of the Episcopal army, who 
had taken refuge in Miinster, was lodged in the house 
of Knipperdolling, in which also dwelt John Bockle- 
son. The deserter observed that the Leyden prophet 
was wont to leave his bedroom at night, and he 
ventured to watch his conduct and satisfy himself 
that it was not what it ought to be. 2 He mentioned 
to others what he had observed. The scandal would 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 36. 
- Ibid, p. 38 ; H. Montfort. p. 28. 



298 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

soon get wind. One only way remained to cut it 
short. John Bockleson consulted with Rottmann and 
the other preachers, and urged that polygamy should 
be not only sanctioned but enjoined on the elect. 

Some of those present having objected to this new 
doctrine, the prophet cast his mantle and the New 
Testament on the ground, and solemnly swore that 
this which he enjoined was the direct revelation of the 
Almighty. He threatened the recalcitrant ministers, 
and at last, half-persuaded and wholly frightened, 
they withdrew their objections ; and he appointed 
the pastors three days in which to preach polygamy 
to the people. 1 The new doctrine having been 
ventilated, an assembly of the people was called, and 
it was formerly laid down by the prophet as the will 
of God, that every man was to have as many wives as 
he wanted. 2 

The result of this new step was to bring about a 
reaction which for a moment threatened the prophet's 
domination with downfall. 
/"% On the 30th July, Heinrich Mollenhecke, a black- 
smith, supported by two hundred citizens, burghers 
and artisans, declared openly that he was resolved to 
put down the new masters of Minister, and to restore 
everything upon the ancient footing. With the 
assistance of his companions, he captured Bockle- 
son, Knipperdolling, and the preachers Rottmann, 
Schlachtscap, Clopris, and Vinnius, and cast them 
into prison. Then a council was held, and it was 
resolved that the gates should be opened to the 
bishop, the old magistracy should be restored, and 

1 Sleidan, p. 414 ; Dorp. {396. 2 Kerssenbroeck, p. 38. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 299. 

the exiled burgesses should be recalled, and their 
property restored to them : and that all this should 
be done on the morroiv. Had it been done on the 
spot we should have heard no more of John of 
Leyden. The delay saved him and ruined the re- 
actionary party. It allowed time for his adherents 
to muster. 1 Mollenhecke and his party, when they 
met on the following morning to execute their design, 
were attacked and surrounded by a mulitude of 
fanatics headed by Heinrich Redecker. The black- 
smith had succeeded in collecting only a handful. 
"(No pen can describe the rage with which their 
adversaries fell upon them, and the refinements of 
cruelty to which they became victims. After having 
overwhelmed them with blows and curses, they were 
imprisoned, but they continued inflicting upon them 
such horrible tortures that the majority of these un- 
fortunates would have a thousand times preferred 
death." 2 Ninety-one were ordered to instant execu- 
tion. Twenty-five were shot, the other sixty-six were 
decapitated by Knipperdolling to economize powder, 
and lest the sound of the discharge of firearms within 
the city should lead the besiegers to believe that 
fighting was going on in the streets. Some had their 
heads cut off, others were tied to a tree and shot, 
others again were cut asunder at the waist, and others 
were slowly mutilated. Knipperdolling himself 
executed the men, so many every day, in the presence 
of the prophet, till all were slain. 3 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 39 et seq ; Heresbach, pp. 41, 42 ; H. 
Montfort., pp. 29, 30 ; Bullinger, lib. ii. c. 9, p. 56. 

2 Kerssenbroeck, p. 40. 3 Ibid. p. 41 ; Dorpius, f. 536 b. 



300 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

" The partisans of the emancipation of the flesh 
having thus obtained the mastery in Miinster," says 
the eye-witness, " it was impossible, a few days later, 
to discover in the capital of Westphalia the last and 
feeble traces of modesty,- chastity, and self-restraint." 
/"Three men, John CEchinckfeld, Henry Arnheim, 
and Hermann Bispinck, having, however, the hardi- 
hood to assert that they still believed that Christian 
marriage consisted in the union of one man with one 
woman, were decapitated by order of John of 
Leyden. 1 

With the death of these men disappeared every 
attempt at resistance. 

^-\The horrors which were perpetrated in Miinster 
under the name of religious liberty almost exceed 
belief. The most frantic licence and savage de- 
bauchery were practised. The prophet took two 
wives, besides his favourite sultana, the beautiful 
Divara, widow of Matthisson, and his lawful wife at 
Leyden. These w x ere soon discovered to be too few, 
and the harem swelled daily. 2 

" We must draw a veil," says Kerssenbroeck, 
" over what took place, for we should scandalise our 
readers were we to relate in detail the outrageous 
scenes of immorality which took place in the town, 
and the villanies which these maniacs committed to 
satisfy their abominable lusts. They were no more 
human beings, they were foul and furions beasts. The 
hideous word Spiritus mens concupiscit carnem tuam 

1 H. Montfort. p. 29 ; C. Heresbach, p. 42. 

2 Kerssenbroeck, p. 42. Dorpius confirms the horrible ac- 
count given by Kerssenbroeck from what he saw himself, f. 498. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 301 

was in every mouth ; those who resisted these magic 
words were shut up in the convent of Rosenthal ; and 
if they persisted in their obstinacy after exhortation,, 
their heads were cut off. In one day four were 
simultaneously executed on this account. On another 
occasion a woman was sentenced to be decapitated, 
after childbirth, for having complained of her husband 
having taken to himself a second wife." 1 
■*""> Henry Schlachtscap preached that no man after 
the Ascension of Christ had lived in true matrimony,, 
if he had contracted marriage on account of beauty, 
wealth, family, and similar causes, -for that true mar- 
riage consisted solely in that which was instigated by 
the Spirit. 
/ ^\ ) A new prophet now appeared upon the scene, 
named Dusentscheuer, a native of Warendorf. He 
rushed into the market-place uttering piercing cries, 
and performing such extraordinary antics that a 
crowd was speedily gathered around him. 

Then, addressing himself to the multitude, he ex- 
claimed, " Christian brothers, the celestial Father has 
revealed to me, and has commanded me to announce 
to you, that John Bockelson of Leyden, the saint and 
prophet of God, must be king of the whole earth ; his 
authority will extend over emperors, kings, princes,, 
and all the powers of the world ; he will be the chief 
authority ; and none shall arise above him. He will 
occupy the throne of his father David, and will carry 
the sceptre till the Lord reclaims it from him." 2 

T Kerssenbroeck, p. 43 et seq. 

2 Ibid, p. 47 ; Sleidan, p. 419 ; Bullinger, lib. ii. p. 56^; Mont- 
fort., p. 31 ; Heresbach, pp. 136-7, " Historia von d. Miinster- 
ischen Widerteuffer," f. 328 b ; Dorpius, f. 397. 



302 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

^Bockelson and the twelve elders were present. A 
profound silence reigned in the assembly. Dusent- 
scheuer, advancing to the elders, demanded their 
swords of office ; they surrendered them into his 
hands ; he placed eleven at the feet of Bockelson, and 
put the twelfth into his hand, saying — " Receive the 
sword of justice, and with it the power to subjugate 
all nations. Use it so that thou mayst be able to give 
a good account thereof to Christ, when He shall come 
to judge the quick and the dead." 1 Then drawing 
from his pocket a phial of fragrant oil, he poured it 
over the tailor's head, pronouncing solemnly the 
words, " I consecrate thee in the presence of thy 
people, in the name of God, and by His command, 
and I proclaim thee king of the new Zion." When 
the unction was performed, Bockelson cast himself in 
the dust and exclaimed, " O Father ! I have neither 
years, nor wisdom, nor experience, necessary for such 
sovereignty ; I appeal to Thy grace, I implore Thy 
assistance and Thy all-powerful protection ! . . . . 
Send down upon me, therefore, Thy divine wisdom. 
May Thy glorious throne descend on me, may it 
dwell with me, may it illumine my labours ; then 
shall I be able to accomplish Thy will and Thy good 
pleasure, and thus shall I be able to govern Thy 
people with equity and justice." 

- Then, turning himself towards the crowd, Bockelson 
declared that he had long known by revelation the 
glory that was to be his, but he had never mentioned 
it, lest he should be deemed ambitious, but had 
awaited in patience and humility the accomplishment 
1 Kerssenbroeck. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER, 303 

of God's holy will. He concluded by saying that, 
destined by the Father to reign over the whole world, 
he would use the sword, and slay all those who 
should venture to oppose him. 1 

^~s Nevertheless murmurs of disapprobation were 
heard. " What ! " thundered the Leyden tailor, 
'" you dare to resist the designs of God ! Know then, 
that even were you all to oppose me, I should never- 
theless become king of the whole earth, and that my 
royalty, which begins now in this spot, will last 
eternally." 
—> The new prophet Dusentscheuer and the other 
preachers harangued the people during three con- 
secutive days on the new revelation, read to the 
people the 23rd chapter of Jeremiah and the 27th of 
Ezekiel, and announced that in the King John the 
prophecies of the old seers were accomplished, for 
that he was the new David whom God had promised 
to raise up in the latter days. They also read aloud 
the 13th chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, 
and accompanied the lecture with commentaries on 
the necessity and divine obligation of submission to 
authority. 1 

/ ~^At the expiration of these three days, Dusent- 
scheuer requested John of Leyden to complete the 
spoliation of the inhabitants, so that everything they 
possessed might be placed in a common fund. " It 
has been revealed to me," said he, " that the Father is 
violently irritated against the men and women be- 
cause they have abused grievously their food and 
drink and clothing. The Father requires for the 
1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 47 ; and the authors before quoted. 



304 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

future, that no one of either sex shall retain more 
than two complete suits and four shirts ; the rest must 
be collected and placed in security. It is the will of 
the Lord that the provisions of beef and pork found 
in every house shall also be seized and be consecrated 
to the general use." 1 

f\ The order was promptly obeyed. Eighty-three 
large waggons were laden with confiscated clothes, 
and all the provisions found in the city were brought 
to the king, who confided the care and apportionment 
of them to Dusentscheuer. 

\ Bockelson now organised his court with splendour. 
He appointed his officers, chamberlain, stewards, 
marshals, and equerries, in imitation of the Court of 
the Emperor and Princes of Germany. Rottmann was 
named his chaplain ; Andrew von Coesfeld, director 
of police; Hermann Tilbeck, grand-marshal; Henry 
Krechting, chancellor ; Christopher Waldeck, the 
bishop's son, who had fallen into his power, was in 
derision made one of the pages; and a privy council 
of four, composed of Bernard Krechting, Henry 
Redecker, and two others of inferior note, was in- 
stituted under the presidency of Christian Kerkering. 
John had also a grand-master of the kitchen, a cup- 
bearer, taster, carver, gentlemen of the bedchamber, 
&c. 2 

*~\But John Bockelson not only desired to be sur- 
rounded by a court ; he determined also to display all 
rhe personal splendour of royalty. Accordingly, at his 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 49. 

2 Ibid. p. 55 Montfort., pp. 31-3 ; Sleidan. p. 418 ; Bullinger,, 
p. 57 ; Heresbach, pp. 137-8. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 305 

order, two crowns of pure gold were made, one royal, 
the other imperial, encrusted with jewels. Around 
his neck hung a gold chain enriched with precious 
stones, from which depended a globe of the same 
metal transfixed by two swords, one of gold, the other 
of silver. The globe was surmounted by a cross 
which bore the inscription, " Ein Konig der Gerech- 
tigkeit liber all " (a King of Righteousness over all). 
His sceptre, spurs, baldrick and scabbard were also of 
gold, and his fingers blazed with diamonds. On one 
of the rings, which was exceedingly massive, was cut, 
" Der Konig in dem nyen Tempel furet dit zeichen vur 
sein Exempel " (the King of the new Temple bears 
this symbol as his token). The royal garments were 
magnificent, of crimson and purple, and costly stuffs 
of velvet, silk, and gold and silver damask, with 
superb lace cuffs and collars, and his mantle lined 
with costly furs. The elders, the prophets, and the 
preachers followed suit, and exchanged their sad- 
coloured garments for robes of honour in gay colours. 
The small house of Knipperdolling no longer con- 
tented the tailor-king ; he therefore furnished, and 
moved into, a handsome mansion belonging to the 
noble family of yon Btiren. The house next door 
was converted into the palace of his queens, and was 
adorned with royal splendour. A door of com- 
munication, broken through the partition wall, allowed 
King John to visit his wives at all hours. 

.He now took to himself thirteen additional wives, 
and a large train of concubines. Among his sixteen 
legitimate wives was a daughter of Knipperdolling. 
Divara of Haarlem remained the head queen, though 



3o6 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

she was the oldest. The rest were all under twenty, 
and were the most beautiful girls of Minister. They 
all bore the title of queens, but Divara alone had a 
court, officers, and bodyguard, habited in a livery of 
chestnut brown and green ; the livery of the king 
being scarlet and blue. 1 

The king usually had his meals with his wives, and 
during the repasts he examined them with great at- 
tention, feasting his eyes on their beauty. The 
names of the sixteen queens were inscribed on a 
tablet on which the king, after dinner, designated the 
lady who had attracted his favour. 2 
"~\ The King of Zion had abolished the names of the 
days of the weeks, and had replaced them by the 
seven first letters of the alphabet. He ordered that 
whenever a child was born in the town, it should be 
announced to him, and then he gave it a name, whose 
initial letter corresponded with the letter of the day 
on which it entered the world. But, as Kerssenbroeck 
observes, the debauchery which reigned in Munster 
had the result of diminishing the births, so that the 
number of children born during the latter part of the 
siege was extraordinarily small. 

Bockelson had only two children by all his wives, 
and both were daughters. Divara was the first to 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 55 et seq. ; and the authors above cited. 
Kerssenbroeck gives long details of the dress, ornaments, and 
manner of life of the king ; also " Historia von d. Miinsterischen 
Widerteuffer," f. 329. 

2 Kerssenbroeck gives the names of all the wives except one, 
which he conceals charitably, as the poor child — she was very- 
young — fell ill, but recovered, and was living respectably after 
the siege with her relatives in the city. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 307 

give birth ; the event took place on a Sunday, 
designated by the ietter A ; it was given the name of 
Averall (for Ueberall — Above all) ; the second child, 
born on Monday, was called Blydam (the Blythe). 1 

uThrice in the week Bockelson sat in judgment in 
the market-place on a throne decked in purple silk, 
and richly adorned with gold. He betook himself to 
this place of audience with great pomp. A band of 
musical instruments headed the pageant, then followed 
the councillors in purple, and the grand-marshal with 
the white wand in his hand. John, wearing the royal 
insignia, mounted on a white horse, splendidly capar- 
isoned, followed between two pages fantastically 
dressed, one bearing a Bible, the other a naked sword, 
symbols of the spiritual and temporal jurisdiction 
exercised by his majesty. The bodyguard surrounded 
his royal person, to keep off the crowd and to protect 
him from danger. Knipperdolling, Rottmann, the 
secretary Puthmann, and the chancellor Krechting 
followed ; then the executioner and his four assist- 
ants, a train of courtiers, and servants closed the pro- 
cession. The whole ceremony was as regal, as 
punctiliously observed, as at a royal court where the 
traditions date from many centuries. 2 

iWhen the king reached the market-place, a squire 
held the horse, he slowly mounted the steps of the 
throne, and inclining his sceptre, announced the open- 
ing of the audience. 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 59. 

2 Kerssenbroeck, p. 62 ; H. Montfort., p. 33 > Hast, p. 363 et 
seq.j Sleidan, p. 415 ; " Historia von de Miinsterischen Wider- 
teuffer," f. 328 b. 



308 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

Then the plaintiffs approached, prostrated them- 
selves flat upon the ground twice, and spoke. The 
majority of the cases were matrimonial complaints, 
often exceedingly indecent ; " the greatest abomina- 
tions formulated in the most hideously cynical terms 
before the most cynical of judges." Capital sentences, 
or penalties little less severe, were pronounced against 
insubordinate wives. x 

The same ceremonial was observed whenever his 
majesty went to hear the preaching in the market- 
square, with the sole exception, that on this occasion 
he was accompanied by the sixteen queens, magnifi- 
cently dressed. Queen Divararode a palfrey capari- 
soned in furs, led by a page ; the court and the fifteen 
other queens followed on foot. On reaching the 
market-place, the ladies entered a house opposite the 
throne, and assisted at the sermon, sitting at the 
windows. 

The pulpit and the throne were side by side ; a 
long broad platform united them. When the sermon 
was concluded, the king, his queens, court, ministers, 
and the preacher, assembled on the platform and 
danced to the strains of the royal band. 

It was from this platform that King John, as 
sovereign pontiff, blessed polygamous marriages, 
saying to the brides and the bridegrooms, " What God 
hath joined let no man put asunder ; go, act according 
to the divine law, be fruitful and multiply, and 

1 Kerssenbroeck. Sleidan says, "Almost every case and 
complaint brought before him concerned married people and 
divorces. For nothing was more frequent, so that persons who 
had lived together for many long years now separated for the 
first time." — p. 415-6. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 309 

replenish the earth." This sanction was necessary 
for the validity of these unions. 

• John, wishing to exercise all the prerogatives of 
royalty, struck coins of various values, bearing on one 
side the inscription, " Das Wort is Fleisch geworden 
und wohnet unter uns " (The Word was made flesh 
and dwelt among us) ; or " Wer nicht gebohren ist 
aus Wasser und Geist der kann nicht eingehen — " 
the rest on the reverse — " In das Reich Gottes. Den 
es ist nur ein rechter Kbnig iiber alle, ein Gott, ein 
Glaube, eine Tauffe " (who is not born of Water and 
the Spirit, cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. 
For there is only one true King over all, one God, 
one Faith, one Baptism). And in the middle, 
" Mlinster, 1534." 

Whilst the city of Miinster was thus passing from 
a republic to a monarchy, the siege continued ; but 
the besiegers made no progress. Refugees informed 
the prince-bishop of what had taken place within the 
walls. 

On the 25th August he assembled the captains and 
the princes and nobles who had come into the camp 
to observe the proceedings, to request them to advise 
him how to put an end to all these horrors and 
abominations. It was proposed that a deputation 
should be sent into the town to propose a capitulation 
on equitable terms ; and in the event of a refusal to 
offer a general assault. x 

COn the 28th August an armistice of three hours* 
duration was concluded, and the deputation obtained 
a safe-conduct authorising them to enter the city. 
1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 65 et seq.j Montfort, pp. 27, 28. 



310 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

But instead of being brought before the inhabitants 
of the town, to whom they were commissioned to 
make the propositions, they were introduced to the 
presence of Bockelson and his court. 
>KThe envoys informed King John of the terms pro- 
posed by the bishop. They were extremely liberal 
He promised a general amnesty if the place were 
surrendered, and arms laid down. 

r> King John replied haughtily, that he did not need 
the clemency of the prince-bishop, for that he stood 
strengthened by the almighty and irresistible power 
of God. " It is your pretended bishop," said he, " who 
is an impious and obstinate rebel, he who makes war 
without previous declaration against the faithful 
servants of the celestial Father. Never will I lay 
down my arms which I have taken up for the defence 
of the Gospel ; never in cowardly fashion will I 
surrender my capital : on the contrary, I know how 
to defend it, even to the last drop of my blood, if the 
honour of God requires it." 1 

^^. The bishop, when he learnt that his deputies had 
been refused permission to address the citizens, 
attached letters, sealed with his Episcopal seal, to 
arrows, which were shot into the town. In these 
letters he promised a general pardon to all those who 
would leave the party of the Anabaptists, and escape 
from the town before the following Thursday. 

But Bockelson forbade, on pain of death, any one 
touching or opening one of these letters, and ordered 
the instant decapitation of man, woman, or child who 
testified anxiety to leave Miinster. 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 21. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 311 

■ The bishop and the princes resolved on attempting 
an assault without further delay. John of Leyden 
received information of their purpose through his 
spies. He at once mounted his white horse, convoked 
the people, and announced to them that the Father 
had revealed to him the day and hour of the projected 
attack; he appointed his post to every man, gave 
employment to the women and children, and dis- 
played, at this critical moment, the zeal, energy, and 
readiness which would have done credit to a veteran 
general. 1 

The assault was preluded by a bombardment of 
three days. The battlements yielded, breaches were 
effected in the walls, the roofs of the houses were 
shattered, the battered gates gave way, and all promised 
success. But the besieged neglected no precaution. 
During the night the walls were repaired and the 
gates strenghtened. Women laboured under the 
orders of the competent directors during the hours of 
darkness, thus allowing their husbands to take their 
requisite repose. They carried stones and the 
munitions of war to the ramparts, and learning to 
handle the cross-bow, they succeeded in committing 
no inconsiderable amount of execution among the 
ranks of the Episcopal army. Other women pre- 
pared lime and boiling pitch " to cook the bishop's 
soup for him." 2 On the 31st August, at daybreak, 
the roar of the Hessian devil, as a large cannon be- 
longing to the Landgrave Philip was called, gave the 
signal. Instantly the city was assaulted in six places. 
The ditches were filled, petards were placed under 
1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 68. 2 Ibid. p. 70. 



312 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

the gates, the palisades were torn down, and ladders 
were planted. But however vigorous might be the 
attack, the defence was no less vigorous. Those on the 
walls threw down the ladders with all upon them, and 
they fell bruised and mangled into the fosse, the heads 
of those who had reached the battlements were crushed 
with stones and cudgels, and their hands, clasping 
the parapet, were hacked off. Women hurled stones 
upon the besiegers, and enveloped them in boiling 
pitch, quicklime, and blazing sulphur. 

Repulsed, they returned to the charge eight or ten 
times, but always in vain. The whole day was con- 
sumed in ineffectual assaults, and when the red sun 
went down in the west, the clarions pealed the retreat, 
and the army, dispirited and bearing with it a train of 
wounded, withdrew, leaving the ground strewn with 
dead. 

•— >, Had the Anabaptists made a night assault, the 
defeat and dispersion of the Episcopal troops would 
have been completed. But instead, they sang a hymn 
and spent the night in banqueting. 
"The prince-bishop, despondent and at his wits' end 
for money, called his officers to a consultation on the 
3rd September, and it was unanimously resolved to 
turn the investment into an effective blockade. This 
resolution was submitted to the electors of Cologne 
and Saxony, the Duke of Cleves, and the Landgrave of 
Hesse, and these princes approved of the design of 
Francis von Waldeck. 

^ It was determined to raise seven redoubts, united 
by ramparts and a ditch, around the city, so as com- 
pletely to close it, and prevent the exit of the be- 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 313 

sieged and the entrance of provisions. It was 
decided that the defence of this circle of forts should 
be confided to a sufficient number of tried soldiers, 
and that the rest of the army should be dismissed. 
, Accordingly, on the 7th September, all the labourers 
of the country round were engaged, under the direc- 
tion of the engineer Wilkin von Stedingen, in raising 
the walls and digging the trenches. The work was 
carried on with vigour by relays of peasants ; never- 
theless, the undertaking was on so great a scale, 
that several months must elapse before it could be 
completed. 1 

- The cost of this terrible siege had already risen to 
600,000 florins, the treasury was empty, and the 
country could bear no further taxes. Francis of 
Waldeck appealed to the Elector Palatine, the 
Electors of Cologne, Mainz, and Treves, to give help 
and subsidies ; he had recourse also to the princes 
and nobles of the Upper and Lower Rhine ; and it 
was decided that a diet should assemble on the 13th 
December, 1534, to make arrangements for the com- 
plete subjugation of the insurgent fanatics. All the 
princes, Catholic and Protestant, trembled for their 
crowns, for the Anabaptist sect ramified throughout 
the country, and if John of Leyden were successful in 
Minister, they might expect similar risings in their 
own principalities. 2 

Whilst the preparations for the blockade were in 
progress, John Bockelson, inflated with pride, placed 
no bounds to his prodigality, his display, and his 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 75 et seq.\ Heresbach, p. 132. 

2 Ibid. p. 75 ; Bussierre, p. 372 ; Hast, p. 366. 



314 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

despotism. He frequently pronounced sentences of 
death. Thus Elizabeth Holschers was decapitated 
for having refused her husband what he demanded of 
her ; Catherine of Osnabrtick underwent the same 
sentence for having told one of the preachers that he 
was building his doctrines upon the sand ; Catherine 
Knockenbecher lost her head for having taken two 
husbands. Polygamy was permitted, but polyandry 
was regarded as an unpardonable offence. 1 

,-\ However, the people chafed at the tyranny they 
were subjected to, and murmurs, low and threatening, 
continued to make themselves heard ; whereupon, by 
King John's order, Dusentscheuer announced from the 
pulpit, " that all those who should for the future have 
doubts in the verities taught them, and who should 
venture to blame the king whom the Father had given 
them, would be given over to the anointed of the 
Lord to be extirpated out of Israel, decapitated by 
the headsman, and condemned to eternal oblivion." 

Amongst those who viewed with envy the rise and 
splendour of the tailor-king was Knipperdolling. He 
had opened his home to the prophet, had patronised 
him, introduced him to the people of Minister, and 
now the draper was eclipsed by the glory of the 
tailor. Thinking that the time was come for him to 
assume the pre-eminence, he made an attempt to de- 
throne Bockelson. 

/ ^— On the 1 2th of September he was seized with the 
spirit of prophecy, became as one possessed, rushed 
through the town howling, foaming at the mouth, 
making prodigious leaps and extravagant gestures, 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 75 ; Bussierre, p. 372. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 315 

and crying in every street, " Repent ! repent ! " After 

having carried on these antics for some time, Knip- 

perdolling dashed into the market-place, cast himself 

down on the ground, and fell into an ecstasy. 

/"The people clustered around him, wondering what 

/new revelation was about to be made, and the king, 

f'who was then holding audience, looked on uneasily 

at the crowd drifting from his throne towards his 

lieutenant-general, whose object he was unable to 

divine, as this performance had not been concerted 

between them. 

/""He was not left long in uncertainty, for Knipper- 
dolling, rising from the ground with livid face, 
scrambled up the back of a sturdy artisan standing 
near, and crawled on all fours " like a dog," says 
Sleidan, over the heads of the throng, breathing in 
their faces, and exclaiming, " The celestial Father has 
sanctified thee; receive the Holy Ghost." Then he 
anointed the eyes of some blind men with his spittle, 
- saying, " Let sight be given you." Undiscomfited by 
the failure of this attempt to perform a miracle, he 
prophesied that he would die and rise again in three 
days ; and he indicated a corner of the market-place 
where this was to occur. Then making his way to- 
wards the throne, he began to dance in the most 
grotesque and indecent manner before the king, 
shouting contemptuously, " Often have I danced thus 
before my mistresses, now the celestial Father has 
ordered me to perform these dances before my king." 1 
/-.John was highly displeased at this performance ; 
/and he ran down the steps of his throne to interrupt 
1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 81 et seq.; Sleidan, p. 416. 



3 i6 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

him. But Knipperdolling nimbly leaped upon the 
dais, seated himself in the place of majesty, and cried 
out, " The Spirit of God impels me : John Bockelson 
is king according to the flesh, I am king according to 
the Spirit ; the two Testaments must be abolished 
and extirpated. Man must cease from obeying 
terrestrial laws ; henceforth he shall obey only the 
inspirations of the Spirit and the instincts of 
nature." 
~\ John of Leyden sprang at him, dragged him from 
the throne, beat his head with his golden sceptre, and 
administering a kick to the rear of his lieutenant, 
sent him flying head over heels from the platform, 
and then calmly enthroning himself, he gave orders, 
for the removal and imprisonment of the rebel. 

He was obeyed. 1 

Knipperdolling, left to cool in the dungeon, felt 
that his only chance of life was to submit. He there- 
fore sent his humble apology to the king, and assured 
him that he had been possessed by an evil spirit, 
which had driven him, against his judgment and 
conscience, into revolt. " And," said he, " last night 
the Father revealed to me that one must venerate 
the royal majesty, and that John is destined to reign 
over the whole earth." 

He was at once released, for Bockelson needed him, 

and the failure of this attempt only secured the king's 

hold over him. He sent him a letter of pardon, 

concluding with the royal signature in this eccentric 

fashion : — 

"In fide persiste salvus 
Carnis curam agit Deus. 

1 Kerssenbroeck, Hast p. 366. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 317 

Johannes Leydanus. 
Potentia Dei, robur meum." 1 

Another event took place at Mlinster, which dis- 
tracted the thoughts of the people from the events of 
the siege, and the attempt of Knipperdolling to de- 
throne the king. 

The prophet Dusentscheuer, on the same day, the 
1 2th September, sought the King of Zion in his 
palace, and said to him with an inspired air, " This is 
the commandment of the Lord to me : Go and say 
unto the chief of Israel, that he shall prepare on the 
Mount Zion (that is, the cathedral square) a great 
supper for all Christian brethren and sisters, and after 
supper he shall commission the teachers of my Word 
to go forth to the four quarters of the world, that they 
may teach all men the way of my righteousness, and 
that they may be brought into my fold." 

The king accepted the message with respect, and 
gave orders for its immediate execution. 

, On the 1 3th September, Dusentscheuer called to- 
gether the elect, traversing the streets playing upon a 
flute. At noon 1700 men, capable of bearing arms, 
400 old men and children, and 5000 women assembled 
•on Mount Zion. 

- Bockelson left his palace, habited in a scarlet tunic 
over which was cast a cloth of silver mantle, on his 
head was his crown, and his sceptre was in his right 
hand. Thirty-two knights, magnificently dressed, 
served as his bodyguard. Then came Queen Divara 
and the rest of the wives of the court. 

1 Persist secure in Faith. God takes care of the Flesh. 
John of Leyden. The Power of God is my strength. 



318 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

When the king had taken his place, the Grand 
Marshal Tilbeck made the people sit down. Tables 
had been arranged along the sides of the great square 
under the trees, with an open space in the centre. 

When all were seated, the king and his familiars 
distributed food to those invited. They were given 
first boiled beef and roots, then ham with other 
vegetables, and finally roast meat. When the plates 
had been removed, thin round cakes of fine wheat 
flour were brought in large baskets, and John, calling 
the faithful up before him, communicated them with 
the bread, saying, " Take and eat this, and show forth 
the Lord's death." Divara followed, holding the 
chalice in her jewelled hands ; she made the com- 
municants drink from it, repeating the words to each, 
"Drink this, and show forth the Lord's death." Then 
all sang the Gloria in excelsis in German, and this 
fantastic parody of the communion was over. 
Bockelson now ordered all his subjects to arrange 
themselves in a circle, and he demanded if they 
would faithfully obey the Word of God. All having 
assented, Dusentscheuer mounted the pulpit and 
said, " The Father has revealed to me the names of 
twenty-seven apostles who are to be sent into every 
part of the world ; they will spread everywhere the 
pure doctrine of the celestial kingdom, and the Lord 
will cover them with the shadow of His wings, so 
that not a hair of their head shall be injured. And 
when they shall arrive at a place where the authori- 
ties refuse to receive the Gospel, there they shall 
leave a florin in gold, they shall shake off the dust of 
their garments, and shall go to another place." Then 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 319 

the prophet designated the chosen apostles — he saw 
himself of the number — and he added, "Go ye into 
all the cities and preach the Word of God." The 
twenty-seven stepped forward, and the king, mount- 
ing the pulpit, exhorted the people to prepare for a 
grand sortie. 1 

The banquet was over for the people ; but John, 
his wives and court, and those who had been on 
guard upon the walls, to the number of 500, now sat 
down. 

The second banquet was much more costly than 
the first. In the midst of the feast, Bockelson, rising, 
said that he had received an order from the Father to 
go round and inspect the guests. He accordingly 
examined those present, and recognising amongst 
them a soldier of the Episcopal army, who had been 
made prisoner, he confronted him sternly, and asked — 

" Friend, what is thy faith ? " 

"My faith," replied the soldier, who was half drunk, 
" is to drink and make love." 

" How didst thou dare to come in, not having on 
the wedding garment ? " asked the king, in a voice of 
thunder. 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 86 ; Montfort, p. 34 ; Dorpius, f. 397 b ; 
Heresbach, p. 139, et seq.; Bullinger, lib. ii. c. 10; Sleidan, 
p. 417 ; this author sets the number of communicants at 5,000, 
the " Newe Zeitung " at 4,000, f. 329. This authority adds that 
the communicants distributed the sacrament they had received 
amongst themselves saying, " Brother and sister, take and eat 
thereof. As Christ gave Himself for me, so will I give myself 
for thee. And as the corn-wheat is baked into one, and the 
grape branches are pressed into one, so we being many are 
one." Also, " Letter of the Bishop to the Electors of Cologne," 
ibid. p. 390. 



3 20 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

" I did not come of my own accord to this de- 
bauch," 1 answered the prisoner ; " I was brought here 
by main force." 

At these words, the king, transported with rage, 
drew his sword and smote off the head of the unfor- 
tunate reveller. 

The night was spent in dancing. 2 

Whilst the king was eating and drinking, the 
twenty-seven apostles were taking a tender farewell 
~ of their 124 legitimate wives, 3 and making their pre- 
parations to depart. 

When all was ready, they returned to Mount Zion ; 
Bockelson ascended the pulpit, and gave them their 
mission in the following terms : — " Go, prepare the 
way ; we will follow. Cast your florin of gold at the 
feet of those who despise you, that it may serve as a 
testimony against them, and they shall be slain, all 
the sort of them, or shall bow their necks to our 
rule." 

Then the gates were thrown open, and the apostles 
went forth, north and south, and east and west. The 
blockade was not complete, and they succeeded in 
traversing the lines of the enemy. 
^s However, the prince-bishop notified to the gover- 
nors of the towns in his principality to watch them 

1 The expression used was somewhat broad — Hurenhochzeit. 

2 Kerssenbroeck, p. 88 et seq.; Heresbach, p. 139; Dorp, 
f. 398- 

3 Evidence of Heinrich Graess. Dorpius says that the 
number of apostles was twenty-eight, and gives their names and 
the places to which they were sent, f. 398. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 321 

and arrest them, should they attempt to disseminate 
their peculiar doctrines. 1 

We shall have to follow these men, and see the 
results of their mission, before we continue the history 
of the siege of Miinster. In fact, on their expedition 
and their success, as John Bockelson probably felt, 
everything depended. As soon as the city was com- 
pletely enclosed no food could enter : already it was 
becoming scarce ; therefore an attack on the Epis- 
copal army from the flank was most essential to 
success ; the palisades and ramparts recently erected 
sufficiently defending the enemy against surprises 
and sorties from the town. 

Seven of the apostles went to Osnabriick, six to 
Coesfeld, five to Warendorf, and eight, amongst 
whom was Dusentscheuer himself, betook themselves 
to Soest. 2 

On entering Soest, Dusentscheuer and his fellow- 
apostles opened their mission by a public frenzied 
appeal to repentance. Then, hearing that the senate 
had assembled, they entered the hall and preached to 
the city councillors in so noisy a fashion that the 
magistrates were obliged to suspend their delibera- 
tions. The burgomaster having asked them who 
they were, and why they entered the town-hall un- 
summoned and unannounced, " We are sent by the 
king of the New Zion, and by order of God to preach 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. Z<^et seq.j Heresbach, pp. 89, 101, 141 ; 
Montfort., p. 35 ; Bullinger, lib. ii. c. 10 ; Sleidan, pp. 417-8 ; 
Hast, p. 368 ; " Historia v. d. Miinst. Widerteuffer." p. 329 a. 

2 For the acts of these apostles, Kerssenbroeck, p. 92 et seq.j 
Menck. p. 1574; Montfort., p. 36 et seq.j Sleidan, p. 418; 
Bullinger, lib. ii. c. 10 ; Heresbach, p. 149. 

X 



322 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

the Gospel," was the reply of Dusentscheuer ; " and 
to execute this mission we need neither passports nor 
permission, The kingdom of Heaven suffereth 
violence, and the violent take it by storm." " Very 
well," said the burgomaster collectedly. " Guards, 
remove the preachers and throw them into prison."' 
A few days after several of them lost their heads on 
the block. 

John Clopris, at the head of four evangelists, 
entered Warendorf. They took up their abode in 
the house of an Anabaptist named Erpo, one of the 
magistrates of the town, and began to preach and 
prophesy in the streets. The first day they rebaptised 
fifty persons. Clopris preached with such fervour 
and persuasive eloquence, that the whole town fol- 
lowed him ; the senate received the . sign of the 
covenant in a body, and this was followed by a 
rebaptism of half the population. 

Alarmed at what was taking place, and afraid of a 
diversion in his rear, Francis of Waldeck wrote to the 
magistrates ordering them to give up the apostles of 
error. They refused, and the prince at once invested 
the town and bombarded it. The magistrates sent 
offers of capitulation, which the prince rejected ; they 
asked to retain their arms and their franchises. 
Francis of Waldeck insisted on unconditional sur- 
render, and they were constrained to yield. Some of 
the senators and citizens who had repented of their 
craze, or who had taken no part in the movement, 
seized the apostles and conducted them to the town- 
hall. Clopris and his fellows cast down their florins 
of gold and declared that they shook off the dust of 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 323 

their feet against the traitors, and that they would 
carry the pure Word of God and the living Gospel 
elsewhere ; but escape was not permitted, and they 
were delivered over to the prince-bishop. 
'—■Francis of Waldeck at once placed sentinels in 
the streets, ordered every citizen to deliver up his 
weapons, took the title-deeds of the city, withdrew 
its franchises, and executed four of the apostles and 
three of the ringleaders of the senators. Clopris was 
sent to Cologne, and was burnt there on the 1st 
February, 1535, by the Elector. The bishop then 
raised a fortress to command the town, and placed 
in it a garrison to keep the Warendorfians in 
order. Seventeen years after, the greater part of 
the franchises were restored, and all the rest in 

1555- 

s The apostles of the east, under Julius Frisius, were 

arrested at Coesfeld, and were executed. 1 
— Those of the north reached Osnabriick. Denis 
Vinnius was at their head. They entered the house 
of a certain Otto Spiecher, whom they believed to 
be of their persuasion, and they laid at his feet their 
gold florins bearing the title and superscription of 
King John, as tokens of their mission. Spiecher 
picked up the gold pieces, pocketed them, and then 

1 The " Newe Zeitung v. d. Widerteuffer. zu Minister," f. 329 
b, 330 a, gives a summary of the confessions of these men, 
and their account of the condition of affairs in the city. They 
said that every man there had five, six, seven, or eight wives, 
and that every girl over the age of twelve was forced to 
marry ; that if one wife showed resentment against another, 
or jealousy, or complained, she was sentenced by the king to 
death. 



324 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

informed his visitors that he did not belong to their 
sect, and that the only salvation for their necks would 
be reticence on the subject of their mission. 

But this was advice Vinnius and his fellow-fanatics 
were by no means disposed to accept. They ran 
forth into the streets and market-place, yelling, danc- 
ing, foaming, and calling to repentance. Then 
Vinnius, having collected a crowd, preached to them 
the setting up of the Millennial kingdom at Miinster. 
Thereupon the city-guard arrived with orders from 
the burgomaster, arrested the missionaries, and carried 
them off to the Goat-tower, where they shut them in, 
and barred fast the doors. 1 

The rabble showed signs of violence, threatened, 
blustered, armed themselves with axes and hammers, 
and vowed they would batter open the prison-gates 
unless the true ministers of God's Word, pure from all 
human additions, were set at liberty. The magistrates 
replied with great firmness that the first man who 
attempted to force the doors should be shot, and no 
one caring to be the first man, though very urgent to 
his neighbours to lead the assault, the mob sang a 
psalm and dispersed, and the ministers were left to 
•console themselves with the promises of Dusentscheuer 
that not a hair of their head should fall. 

A messenger was sent by the magistrates post haste 
to the prince-bishop, and before morning the evange- 
lists were in his grasp at I burg. 

As they were led past Francis of Waldeck, one of 
them, Heinrich Graess, exclaimed in Latin, " Has not 
the prince power to release the captive ? " and the 
1 Kerssenbroeck, p. ioo ct scq. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 325 

prince, disposed in his favour, sent for him. Graess 
then confessed that the whole affair was a mixture of 
fanaticism and imposture, the ingredients being mixed 
in pretty equal proportions, and promised, if his life 
were spared, to abandon Anabaptism, and, what was 
more to the point, to prove an Ahitophel to the 
Absalom in Zion. 

Graess was pardoned, Strahl died in prison, the 
other four were brought to the block. 
X Graess was the sole surviving apostle of the 
seventy-seven, and the miserable failure of their 
mission had rudely shaken out of him all belief in its 
divine character, and he became as zealous in un- 
masking Anabaptism as he had been enthusiastic in 
its propagation. 

There is no reason to believe that the man was an 
unprincipled traitor. On the contrary, he appears to 
have been thoroughly in earnest as long as he believed 
in his mission, but his confidence had been shaken 
before he left the city, and the signal collapse of the 
mission sufficed to convince him of his previous error, 
and make him resolute to oppose it. 

Laden with chains, he was brought to the gates of 
1 Munster one dark night and there abandoned. In 
the morning he was recognised by the sentinels, and 
was brought into the city, and led in triumph before 
the king, by a vast concourse chanting German 
hymns. 1 

And thus he accounted for his presence : — " I was 
last night at Iburg in a dark dungeon, when suddenly 
1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 103 et seq.; Montfort, pp. \o- 1 ; Hast, 
p. 368. 



326 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

a brilliant light rilled my prison, and I saw before me 
an angel of God, who took me by the hand and led 
me forth, and delivered me from the death which has 
befallen all my companions, and which the ungodly 
determined to inflict on me upon the morrow. The 
angel transported me asleep to the gate of Mtinster, 
and that none may doubt my story, lo ! the chains, 
wherewith I was laden by the enemies of Israel, still 
encumber me." 

Some of the courtiers doubted the miracle, but not 
so the people, and the king gave implicit credence to 
his word, or perhaps thought the event capable of a 
very simple explanation, which had been magnified 
and rendered supernatural by the heated fancy of the 
mystic. 
"-\ Graess became the idol of the people and the 
f favourite of Bockelson. The king passed a ring upon 
his finger, and covered him with a robe of distinction, 
half grey, half green — the first the symbol of persist- 
ence, the other typical of gratitude to God. 1 Graess 
profited by his position to closely observe all that 
transpired of the royal schemes. 
/~x John Bockelson became more and more tyrannical 
and sanguinary. He hung a starving child, aged ten, 
for having stolen some turnips. A woman lost her 
head for having spit in the face of a preacher of the 
Gospel. An Episcopal soldier having been taken, the 
king exhorted him to embrace the pure Word of God, 
freed from the traditions of men. The prisoner hav- 
ing had the audacity to reply that the pure Gospel as 
practised in the city seemed to him to be adultery, 
1 Montfort., p. 40. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 327 

fornication, and all uncleanness ; the king, foaming 
with rage, hacked off his head with his own hand. 1 

Provisions became scarce in Mtinster, and the in- 
habitants were driven to consume horse-flesh ; and 
the powder ran short in the magazine. 

The Diet of Coblenz assembled on the 13th 
December. The envoys of the Elector Palatine, the 
prince-bishops of Maintz, Cologne, and of Trier, the 
princes and nobles of the Upper and Lower Rhine 
and of Westphalia appeared. Francis of Waldeck, 
unable to be present in person, sent deputies to repre- 
sent him. 2 

These deputies having announced that the cost of 
the siege had already amounted to 700,000 florins, 
besought the assembled princes to combine to ter- 
minate this disastrous war. A long deliberation 
followed, and the principle was admitted that as the 
establishment of an Anabaptist kingdom in Miinster 
would be a disaster affecting the whole empire, it was 
just that the bishop should not be obliged to bear the 
whole expenses of the reduction of Miinster. The 
Elector John Frederick of Saxony, though not be- 
longing to the three circles convoked, through his 
deputies sent to the Diet, promised to take part in 
the extirpation of the heretics. 3 It was finally agreed 
that the bishop should be supplied with 300 horse 
soldiers, 3000 infantry, and that an experienced 
General, Count Ulrich von Ueberstein, should com- 
mand them and take the general conduct of the 
war. 4 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. no. - Ibid. p. 114. 
s Ibid. ; Sleidan, p. 419 ; Heresbach, p. 132. 4 Sleidan, p. 419. 



328 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

-—The monthly subsidy of 15,000 florins was also 
promised to be contributed till the fall of Minister. 
It was also agreed that the prince-bishop should be 
guaranteed the integrity of his domains ; that each 
prince, Catholic or Protestant, should use his utmost 
endeavours to extirpate Anabaptism from his estates; 
that the Bishop of Miinster should request Ferdinand,, 
King of the Romans, and the seven Electors, to 
meet on the 4th April, at Worms, to consult with 
those then assembled at Worms on measures to crush 
the rebellion, to divide the cost of the war, and to 
punish the leaders of the revolt at Miinster. 

Lastly, the Diet addressed a letter to the guilty 
city, summoning it to surrender at discretion, unless 
it were prepared to resist the combined effort of all 
estates of the empire. 

But if the princes were combining against the Ana- 
baptist New Jerusalem, the sectarians were in agita- 
tion, and were arming to march to its relief from all 
sides, from Leyden, Freisland, Amsterdam, Deventer, 
from Brabant and Strassburg. 

The Anabaptists of Deventer were on the point of 
rising and massacring the " unbelievers " in this city, 
and then marching on Miinster, when the plot was 
discovered, and the four ringleaders were executed. 
The vigilance of the Regent of the Netherlands pre- 
vented the adherents of the mystic sect, who were 
then very numerous, from rolling in a wave upon 
Westphalia, and sweeping the undisciplined Episcopal 
army away and consolidating the power of their 
pontiff-king. 

It was towards the Low Countries that John of 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 3 2 9 

Leyden looked with impatience. When would the 
expected delivery come out of the west ? Why were 
not the thousands and tens of thousands of the sons 
of Israel rising from their fens, joined by trained 
bands from the cities, marching by the light of blazing 
cities, singing the songs of Zion ? 

Graess offered the king to hie to the Low Countries 
and rouse the faithful seed. "The Father," said he, 
" has ordered me to gather together the brethren dis- 
persed at Wesel, at Deventer, at Amsterdam, and in 
Lower Germany; to form of them a mighty army 
that shall deliver this city and smite asunder the 
enemies of Israel. I will accomplish this mission 
with joy in the interest of the faithful. I fear no 
danger, since I go to fulfil the will of God, and I am 
sure that our brethren, when they know our extremity, 
and that it is the will of their king, will rise and 
hasten to the relief." x 

John Bockelson was satisfied ; he furnished Graess 
%ith letters of credit, sealed with the royal signet. 
The letters were couched in the following terms : — 
" We, John, King of Righteousness in the new Temple, 
and servant of the Most High, do you to wit by these 
presents, that the bearer of these letters, Heinrich 
Graess, prophet illumined by the celestial Father, is 
sent by us to assemble, for the increase of our realm, 
our brethren dispersed abroad throughout the German 
lands. He will make them to hear the words of life, 
and he will execute the commandments which he 
has received from God and from us. We therefore 
1 Montfort., p. 40 ; Kerssenbroeck, p. 104 ct seq. ; Hast, 
p. 368. 



330 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

order and demand of all those who belong to our 
kingdom to confide in him as in ourselves. Given at 
Miinster, city of God, and sealed with our signet, in 
the twenty-sixth year of our age and the second of 
our reign, the second day of the first month, in the 
year 1535 after the nativity of Jesus Christ, Son of 
God." 

Graess, furnished with this letter and with 300 
florins from the treasury, left the city, and betook 
himself direct to Iburg, which he reached on the vigil 
of the Epiphany ; 1 and appeared before the bishop, 
told him the whole project, the names of the principal 
members of the sect at Wesel, Amsterdam, Leyden, 
&c, the places where their arms were deposited, and 
their plan of a general rising and massacring their 
enemies on a preconcerted day. 

The bishop sent dispatches at once to the Duke of 
Juliers and the Governors of the Low Countries to 
warn them to be on their guard. They replied, request- 
ing his assistance in suppressing the insurrection; and 
as the most effectual aid he could render would be to 
send Graess, he commissioned him to visit Wesel, and 
arrest the execution of the project. 

Graess at once betook himself to Wesel, where he 
denounced the ringleaders and indicated the places 
where their arms and ammunition were secreted in 
enormous quantities. A tumult broke out ; but the 
Duke of Juliers entered Wesel on the 5th April (1535), 
at the head of some squadrons of cavalry, seized the 
ringleaders, who were members of the principal houses 
in the place and of the senate, and on the 13th exe- 
1 Montfort, p. 40. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 331 

cuted six of them. The rest were compelled to do 
penance in white sheets, were deprived of their arms, 
and put under close surveillance. 

Another division of the Anabaptists attempted to 
gain possession of Leyden, but were discomfited, 
fifteen of the principal men of the party were executed, 
and five of the women most distinguished for their 
fanaticism were drowned, amongst whom was the 
original wife of John Bockelson. 1 

In Groningen, the partisans of the sect were 
numerous ; orders reached them from the king to rise 
and massacre the magistrates, and march to the relief 
of the invested city. As the Anabaptists there were 
not all disposed to recognise the royalty of John of 
Leyden, an altercation broke out between them, and 
the attempt failed ; but rising and marching under 
Peter Shomacker, their prophet, they were defeated 
on January 24th, by the Baron of Leutenburg, and 
the prophet was executed. 

We must now return to what took place in the 
town of Miinster at the opening of the year 1535. 
f Bockelson inaugurated that year by publishing, on 
-• January 2nd, an edict in twenty-eight Articles. It 
was addressed " To all lovers of the Truth and the 
Divine Righteousness, learned in and ignorant of 
the mysteries of God, to let them know how those 
Christians ought to live or act who are fighting under 
the banner of Justice, as true Israelites of the new 
Temple predestined for long ages, announced by the 
mouths of all the holy prophets, founded in the power 
of the Holy Ghost, by Christ and his Apostles, and 
1 Hast, p. 370; Bussierre, p. 403. 



332 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

finally established by John, the righteous King, seated 
on the throne of David." 

The Articles were to this effect : — 

"i. In this new temple there was to be only one 
king to rule over the people of God. 

2. This king was to be a minister of righteousness,. 

and to bear the sword of justice. 

3. None of the subjects were to desert their allotted 

places. 

4. None were to interpret Holy Scripture wrong- 

fully. 

5. Should a prophet arise teaching anything con- 

trary to the plain letter of Holy Scripture, he 
was to be avoided. 

6. Drunkenness, avarice, fornication, and adultery 

were forbidden. 

7. Rebellion to be punished with death. 

8. Duels to be suppressed. 

9. Calumny forbidden. 

10. Egress from the camp forbidden without per- 

mission. 

11. Any one absenting himself from his wife for 

three days, without leave from his officer, the 
wife to take another husband. 

12. Approaching the enemy's sentinels without 

leave forbidden. 

1 3. All violence forbidden among the elect. 

14. Spoil taken from the enemy to go into a com- 

mon fund. 

15. No renegade to be re-admitted. 

16. Caution to be observed in admitting a Christian 

into one society who leaves another. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 333 

17. Converts not to be repelled. 

18. Any desiring to live at peace with the Chris- 

tians, in trade, friendship, and by treaty, not 
to be rejected. 

19. Permission given to dealers and traders to 

traffic with the elect. 

20. No Christian to oppose and revolt against any 

Gentile magistrate, except the servants of the 
bishops and the monks. 

21. A Gentile culprit not to be remitted the penalty 

of his crime by joining the Christian sect. 

22. Directions about bonds. 

23. Sentence to be pronounced against those /who 
violate these laws and despise the Word of 
God, but not hastily, without the knowledge of 
the king. 

24. No constraint to be used to force on marriages. 

25. None afflicted with epilepsy, leprosy, and other 

diseases, to contract marriage without informing 
the other contracting party of their condition. 

26. Nulla virginis specie, cum virgo non sit, fratrem 

defraudabit ; alioquin serio punietur. 

27. Every woman who has not a legitimate husband, 

to choose from among the community a man 
to be her guardian and protector. 
"Given by God and King John the Just, minister 
of the Most High God, and of the new Temple, 
in the 26th year of his age and the first of his 
reign, on the second day of the first month 
after the nativity of Jesus Christ, Son of 
God, 1535." l 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 132 ct scq. 



334 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

The object Bockelson had in view in issuing this 
edict was to produce a diversion in his favour among 
the Lutherans. He already felt the danger he was in, 
from a coalescence of Catholics and Protestants, and 
he hoped by temperate proclamations and protesta- 
tions of his adhesion to the Bible, and the Bible only, 
as his authority, to dispose them, if not to make 
common cause with him, at least to withdraw their 
assistance from the common enemy, the Catholic 
bishop. 

For the same object he sent letters on the 13th 
January to the Landgrave of Hesse, and with them a 
book called " The Restitution " (Von der Wieder- 
bringung), intended to place Anabaptism in a favour- 
able light. 1 

The Landgrave replied at length, rebuking the 
fanatics for their rebellion, for their profligacy, and 
for their heresy in teaching that man had a free will. 2 

This reply irritated the Anabaptists, and they 
wrote to him again, to prove that they clave to the 
pure Word of God, freed from all doctrines and tradi- 
tions of men, and that they followed the direct 
inspiration of God through their prophet. They also 
retorted on Philip with some effect. The Landgrave, 
said they, had no right to censure them for attacking 
their bishop, for he had done precisely the same in 
his own dominions. He had expelled all the religious 
from their convents, and had appropriated their 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 128; Sleidan, p. 420; Hast, p. 373 et seq.\ 
"Acta, Handlungen," &c, f. 365 b. The king's letter began 
"Leve Lips" (" Dear Phil"). 

2 Sleidan, p. 421. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 335. 

lands ; he had re-established the Duke of Wurtemburg 
in opposition to the will of the Emperor; he had 
changed the religion of his subjects, and was unable 
to allege, as his authority for thus acting, the direct 
orders of Heaven, transmitted to him by the prophets 
of the living God. They might have retorted upon 
the Landgrave also, the charge of immorality, but 
they forbore; their object was to persuade the 
champion of the Protestant cause to favour them, not 
to exasperate him by driving the tu quoque too deep 
home. 

With this letter was sent a treatise by Rottmann, 
entitled, " On the Secret Significance of Scripture." 

Philip of Hesse wavered. He wrote once more ; 
and after having attempted to excuse himself for 
those things wherewith he had been reproached, he 
said, " If the thing depended on me only, you 
would not have to plead in vain your just cause, 
and you would obtain all that you demand ; but you 
ought ere this to have addressed the princes of the 
empire, instead of taking the law into your own 
hands ; flying to arms, erecting a kingdom, electing a 
king, and sending prophets and apostles abroad to 
stir up the towns and the people. Nevertheless, it is 
possible that even now your demands may be favour- 
ably listened to, if you recall on equitable conditions 
those whom you have driven out of the town and 
despoiled of their goods, and restore your ancient 
constitutions and your former authorities." 1 
___ Luther now thundered out of Wittemberg. Sleidan 
epitomises this treatise. Five Hessian ministers also 
1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 129 ; Sleidan, p. 421. 



336 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

issued an answer to the doctrine of the Anabaptists of 
Miinster, which was probably drawn up for them by 
Luther himself, or was at least submitted to him for 
his approval, for it is published among his German 
works. 1 It is full of invective and argument in about 
equal doses. A passage or two only can be quoted 
here : — 

" Since you are led astray by the devil into such 
blasphemous error, drunk and utterly imprisoned 
you wish, as is Satan's way, to make yourselves into 
angels of light, and to paint in brightness and colour 
your devilish doings. For the devil will be no devil, 
but a holy angel, yea, even God himself, and his 
works, however bad they may be before God and all 
the world, he will have unrebuked, and himself be 
honoured and reverenced as the Most Holy. For that 
purpose he and you, his obedient disciples, use Holy 
Scripture as all heretics have ever done." 2 
"\ " What shall I say ? You let all the world see 
that you understand far less about the kingdom of 
Christ than did the Jews, who blame you for your 
want of understanding, and yet none spoke or be- 
lieved more ignorantly of that same kingdom than 
they. For the Scripture and the prophets point to 
Messiah, through whom all was to be fulfilled, and 
this the Jews also believed. But you want to 
make it point to your Tailor-King, to the great dis- 
grace and mockery of Christ, our only true King, 
Saviour, and Redeemer." 3 

1 Luth. " Sammtliche Werke," Wittenb. 1545-51, ii. ff. 
367-375 ; "Von der Teuffelischen Secte d. Widerteuffer. zu 
Miinster." 

2 Ibid. f. 367. ;3 Ibid. f. 369. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 337 

But this was the grievous rub with the Reformer — 
that the Anabaptist had gone a step beyond himself. 
" You have cast away all that Dr. Martin Luther 
taught you, and yet it is from him that you have 
received, next to God, all sound learning out of the 
Scripture ; you have given another definition of 
faith, after your new fashion, with various additional 
articles, so that you have not only darkened, but have 
utterly annihilated the value of saving faith." 1 
- In a treatise of Justus Menius, published with 
Luther's approval, and with a preface by him, " On 
the Spirit of the Anabaptists," it is angrily com- 
plained, that these sectaries bring against the 
Lutheran Church the following charges : — " First, that 
our churches are idol-temples, since God dwelleth not 
in temples made with hands. Secondly, that we do 
not preach the truth, and have true Divine worship 
therein. Thirdly, that our preachers are sinners, and 
are therefore unfit to teach others. Fourthly, that 
the common people do not mend their morals by 
our preaching." All which charges Justus Menius 
answers as well as he can, sword in one hand against 
the Papists, trowel in the other patching up the walls 
of his Jerusalem. 2 

Melancthon also wrote against the Anabaptist 
book, combating all its propositions, and to do so 
falling back on the maxim, Abusus 11011 tollit sub- 
stantiam, a maxim completely ignored by the Re- 
formers when they attacked the Catholics. 3 Thus 

1 Ibid. f. 373. °- Ibid. ii. ff. 298-325. 

a Ibid. ii. ff. 334-363, Melancthon says that things had come 
to such a pass in Miinster, that no child knew who was its 
father, brother, or sister. 



338 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

the new sect fought Lutheranism with precisely the 
same weapons wherewith the Lutherans had fought 
the Church ; and the Lutherans, to maintain their 
ground, were obliged to take refuge in the authority 
of the Church and tradition — positions they had 
assailed formerly, and to use arguments they had 
previously rejected. 

In the treatise of the five Hessian divines, drawn 
up by Philip of Hesse's orders, the errors of the 
Anabaptists are epitomised and condemned; they are 
as follows : — 

" i. They do not believe that men are justified by 
faith only, but by faith and works conjointly. 

2. They refer the redemption of Christ alone to 

the fall of Adam, and to its consequences on 
those born of him. 

3. They hold community of goods. 

4. They blame Martin Luther as having taught 

nothing about good works. 

5. They proclaim the freedom of man's will. 

6. They reject infant baptism. 

7. They take the Bible alone, uninterpreted by 

any commentary. 

8. They declare for plurality of wives. 

9. They do not correctly teach the Incarnation of 

Christ." 1 

This " Kurtze : und in der eile gestelte Antwort," 

is signed by John Campis, John Fontius, John 

Kymeus, John Lessing, and Anthony Corvinus. 

It was high time that the siege should come to an 

end, so every one said ; but every one had said the 

1 "Acta Handlung-." &c. f. 366 a. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 339 

same for the last twelve months, and Mtinster held out 
notwithstanding. 
/\An ultimatum was sent into the city by the general 
in command, offering the inhabitants liberal terms if 
they would surrender, and warning them that, in case 
of refusal, the city would be taken by storm, and 
would be delivered over to plunder. 1 No answer was 
made to the letter ; nevertheless, it produced a pro- 
found impression on the citizens, who were already 
suffering from want of victuals. A party was formed 
which resolved to seize the person of the king, and to 
open the gates and make terms with the bishop. 2 
Bockelson, hearing of the plot, assembled the whole 
of the population in the cathedral square, and 
solemnly announced to them by revelation from the 
Father that at Easter the siege would be raised, and 
the city experience a wonderful deliverance. He 
also divided the town into twelve portions, and placed 
at the head of each a duke of his own creation, 
charged with the suppression of treason and the pro- 
tection of the gates. Each duke was provided with 
twenty-four guards for the defence of his person, and 
the infliction of punishment on those citizens who 
proved restive under the rule of the King of Zion. 3 
These dukes were promised the government of the 
empire, when the kingdoms of Germany became the 
kingdom of John of Leyden. Denecker, a grocer, 
was Duke of Saxony ; Moer, the tailor, Duke of 
Brunswick ; the Kerkerings were appointed to reign 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 130. " Ibid. p. 140. 

3 Sleidan, p. 419; Bullinger, 1. ii. c. 9; Heresbach, p. 156; 
Dorp. f. 498. 



34° HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

over Westphalia ; Redecker, the cobbler, to bear rule 
in Juliers and Cleves. John Palk was created Duke 
of Guelders and Utrecht ; Edinck was to be supreme 
in Brabant and Holland ; Faust, a coppersmith, in 
Mainz and Cologne ; Henry Kock was to be Duke 
of Trier ; Ratterberg to be Duke of Bremen, 
Werden, and Minden ; Reininck took his title from 
Hildesheim and Magdeburg; and Nicolas Strip from 
Frisia and Groningen. As these men were for the 
most part butchers, blacksmiths, tailors, and shoe- 
makers, their titles, ducal coronets and mantles, and 
the prospect of governing, turned their heads, and 
made them zealous tools in the hands of Bockelson. 

The king made one more attempt to rouse the 
country. He issued letters offering the pillage of the 
whole world to all those who would join the standard. 
But the bishop was informed of the preparation of 
these missives by a Danish soldier in Miinster ; he 
was much alarmed, as his lantzknechts were ready to 
sell their services to the highest bidder. He there- 
fore pressed on the circumvallation of the city, kept a 
vigilant guard, and captured every emissary sent forth 
to distribute these tempting offers. On the nth 
February, 1535, the moat, mound, and palisade around 
the city were complete ; and it was thenceforth im- 
possible for access to or egress from the city to be 
effected without the knowledge of the prince and his 
generals. The unfortunate people of Mtinster dis- 
covered attempting to escape were by the king's 
orders decapitated. Many men and women perished 
thus ; amongst them was a mistress of Knipperdolling 
named Dreyer, who, weary of her life, fled, but was. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUMS TEE. 341 

caught and delivered over to the executioner. When 
her turn came, the headsman hesitated. Knipper- 
dolling, perceiving it, took from him the sword, and 
without changing colour smote off her head. " The 
Father," said he, " irresistibly inspired me to this, and 
I have thus become, without willing it or knowing it, 
an instrument of vengeance in the hands of the 
Lord." 1 

The legitimate wife of Knipperdolling, for having 
disparaged polygamy, escaped death with difficulty ; 
she was sentenced to do public penance, kneeling in 
the great square, in the midst of the people, with a 
naked sword in her hands. 2 

-_„ Easter came, the time of the promised delivery, 
and the armies of the faithful from Holland and 
Friesland and Brabant had not arrived. The posi- 
tion of Bockelson became embarrassing. He extri- 
cated himself from the dilemma with characteristic 
effrontery. During six days he remained in his own 
house, invisible to every one. At the expiration of 
the time he issued forth, assembled the people on 
Mount Zion, and informed them that the deliverance 
predicted of the Father had taken place, but that it 
was a deliverance different in kind from what they 
had anticipated. " The Father," said he, " has laid on 
my shoulders the iniquities of the Israelites. I have 
been bowed down under their burden, and was well- 
nigh crushed beneath their weight. Now, by the 
grace of the Lord, health has been restored to me, 
and you have been all released from your sins. This 
spiritual deliverance is the most excellent of all, and 
1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 148. - Ibid. p. 149. 



342 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

must precede that which is purely exterior and 
temporal. Wait, therefore, patiently, it is promised 
and it will arrive, if you do not fall back into your 
sins, but maintain your confidence in God, who never 
deserts His chosen people, though He may subject 
them to trials and tribulations, to prove their con- 
stancy.'' 1 One would fain believe that John Bockelson 
was in earnest, and the subject of religious infatua- 
tion, like his subjects, but after this it is impossible to. 
so regard him. 

The princes, when separating after the assembly of 
Coblenz, had agreed to reassemble on the 4th of 
April. Ferdinand, King of the Romans, convoked all 
the Estates of the empire to meet on that day at 
Worms. The deputies of several towns protested 
against the decisions taken at Coblenz without their 
participation, and the deliberations were at the outset 
very tumultuous. An understanding was at length 
arrived at, and a monthly subsidy of 20,000 florins, 
for five months was agreed upon, to maintain the 
efficacy of the investment of Mtinster. But before 
separating, a final effort to obtain a pacific termination 
to the war was resolved upon, and the burgomasters 
of Frankfort and Ntirnberg were sent as a deputa- 
tion into the city. This attempt proved as sterile as 
all those previously essayed. " We have nothing in 
common with the Roman empire," answered the 
chiefs of Zion ; " for that empire is the fourth beast 
whereof Daniel prophesied. We have set up again 
the kingdom of Israel, by the Father's command, and 

1 Kerssenbroeck, pp. 153, 154; Sleidan, p. 422; Bullinger 
lib. ii. c. 2 ; Heresbach, pp. 159, 160. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 343 

we engage you to abstain for the future from assailing 
this realm, as you fear the wrath of God and eternal 
damnation." 1 

^— The famine in Minister now became terrible. Cats, 
rats, dogs, and horses were eaten ; the starving people 
attempted various expedients to satisfy their craving 
hunger. They ate leather, wood, even cow-dung dried 
in the sun, the bark of trees, and candles. Corpses 
lately buried were dug up during the night and 
secretly devoured. Mothers even ate their children. 
" Terrible maladies," says Kerssenbroeck, " the con- 
sequence of famine, aggravated the position of the 
inhabitants of the town ; their flesh decomposed, they 
rotted living, their skin became livid, their lips re. 
treated ; their eyes, fixed and round, seemed ready to 
start out of their orbits ; they wandered about, 
haggard, hideous, like mummies, and died by hundreds 
in the streets. The king, to prevent infection, had 
the bodies cast into large common ditches, whence 
the starving withdrew them furtively to devour them. 
Night and day the houses and streets re-echoed with 
tears, cries, and moans ; — men, women, old men, and 
children sank into the darkest despair." 2 

/In the midst of the general famine, John of Leyden 
lived in abundance. His storehouses, into which the 
victuals found in every house had been collected, 
supplied his own table and that of his immediate 
followers. His revelry and pomp were unabated, 
whilst his deluded subjects died of want around him. 3 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 155 ; Hast, 394. 

2 Kerssenbroeck, p. 157 et seq. ; Heresbach, pp. 151, 152 ; 
Hast, p. 395; Montfort., p. 46. 3 Ibid. p. 157. 



3-44 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

/ When starvation was at its worst, a letter from 
Heinrich Graess circulated in the town, informing the 
people that his miraculous escape had been a fable, 
and that he had rejected the follies of Anabaptism, 
disgusted at the extravagance to which it had led its 
votaries, and assuring them that their king was an 
impostor, exploiting to his advantage the credulity of 
an infatuated mob. 1 

, This letter produced an effect which made the 
king tremble. He summoned his disciples before 
him, reproached them for putting the hand to the 
plough and turning back, and gave leave to all those 
whose faith wavered to go out from the city. "As 
for me," said he, " I shall remain here, even if I 
remain alone with the angels which the Father will 
not fail to send to aid me to defend this place." 2 
fi When the king had given permission to leave the 
city, numbers of every age and sex poured through 
the gates, leaving behind only the most fanatical who 
were resolved to conquer or die with John of Leyden. 
Outside the city walls extended a trampled and 
/'desolate tract to the fosse and earthworks of the 
besiegers, strewn with the ruins of houses and of 
farmsteads. The unfortunate creatures escaping from 
Zion, wasted and haggard like spectres, spread over 
this devastated region. The investing army drove 
them back towards the city, unwilling to allow the 
rebels to protract the siege by disembarrassing 
themselves of all the useless mouths in the place. 
They refused, however, to re-enter the walls, and 
remained in the Konigreich, as this desert tract was 
1 Montfort, p. 47. 2 Kerssenbroeck, p. 161. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 345 

called, to the number of 900, living on roots and 
grass, for four weeks, lying on the bare earth. Some 
were too feeble to walk, and crawled about on all 
fours ; their hunger was so terrible that they filled 
their mouths with sand, earth, or leaves, and died 
choked, in terrible convulsions. Night and day their 
moans, howls, and cries ascended. The children 
presented a yet more deplorable spectacle ; they im- 
plored their mothers to give them something to eat, 
and they, poor creatures, could only answer them with 
tears and sobs ; often they approached the lines of 
the camp, and sought to excite the compassion of the 
soldiers. 

/The General in command, Graff Ueberstein, sent 
"information, on April 22nd, to the bishop, who was 
ill in his castle at Wollbeck, and asked what was to 
be done with these unfortunates who were perishing 
in the Konigreich. The bishop shed tears, and pro- 
tested his sorrow at the sufferings of the poor wretches, 
but did not venture to give orders for their removal, 
without consulting the Duke of Cleves and the 
Elector of Cologne. Thus much precious time was 
lost, and only on the 28th May, a month after, were 
the starving wretches permitted to leave the Koni- 
greich, upon the following terms : 1st. That they 
should be transported to the neighbouring town of 
Diekhausen, where they should be examined, and 
those who were guilty among them executed ; 2nd. 
That the rest should be pardoned and dispersed in 
different places, after having undertaken to renounce 
Anabaptism, and to abstain from negotiations, open 
or secret, with their comrades in the beleagured 



346 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

city. 1 These conditions having been made, the re- 
fugees were transported on tumbrils and in carts to 
Diekhausen, at a foot's pace, their excessive exhaustion 
rendering them incapable of bearing more rapid 
motion. They numbered 200 ; 700 had perished of 
famine between the lines of the investing army and 
the walls of the besieged town. On the 30th May, 
those found guilty of prominent participation in the 
revolt were executed. 

The prince-bishop might have spared his tears and 
sent loaves. His hesitation and want of genuine 
sympathy with the starving unfortunates serve to 
mark his character as not only weak, but selfish and 
cowardly. 

Whilst this was taking place outside the walls of 
Miinster, John van Gheel, an emissary of Bockelson,. 
was actively engaged in rousing the Anabaptists of 
Amsterdam. Having insinuated himself into the 
good graces of the Princess Mary, regent of the 
Netherlands, he persuaded her that he was desirous 
of restraining the sectaries waiting their call to march 
to the relief of Miinster. She even furnished him 
with an authorisation to raise troops for this purpose. 
He profited by this order to arm his friends and lay a 
plot for obtaining the mastery of Amsterdam. His 
design was to make that city a place of rendezvous 
for all the Anabaptists of the Low Countries, who 
would flock into it as a city of refuge, when once it 
was in his power, and then he would be able to 
organise out of them an army sufficiently numerous 
and well appointed to raise the siege of Miinster. 
1 Kerssenbroeck, pp. 16 1-8. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 347 

On the nth May he placed himself at the head of 
600 friends, seized on the town, massacred half the 
guards, and one of the burgomasters. Amsterdam 
would inevitably have been in the power of the 
sectaries in another hour, had not one of the guard 
escaped up the tower and rung the alarm-bell. As 
the tocsin pealed over the city, the citizens armed and 
rushed to the market-place, fell upon the Ana- 
baptists and retook the town-hall, notwithstanding a 
desperate resistance. Crowds of fanatics from the 
country, who had received secret intimation to as- 
semble before the walls of Amsterdam, and wait till 
the gates were opened to admit them, finding that the 
plan had been defeated, threw away their arms and 
fled with precipitation. 1 

Van Gheel had fallen in the encounter. The 
prisoners were executed. Amongst these was Campe 
whom John of Leyden had created Anabaptist bishop 
of Amsterdam. His execution was performed with 
great barbarity ; first his tongue, then his hand, and 
finally his head was cut off. 2 

We must look once more into the doomed city. 
S In the midst of the general desolation John Bockel- 
son and his court lived in splendour and luxury. 
Every one who murmured against his excesses was 
executed. Heads were struck off on the smallest 
charge, and scarcely a day passed in May and June 
without blood flowing on Mount Zion. One of the 
most remarkable of these executions was that of 
Elizabeth Wandtscherer, one of the queens. 

1 Kerssenbroeck, pp. 73, 74 ; Hast, p. 37 ; Montfort., p. 58 et 
sen. 2 Montfort., pp. 68, 69. 



348 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

This woman had had three husbands ; the first was 
dead, the second marriage had been annulled, and 
Bockelson had taken her to wife because she was 
pretty and well made. 

/-She was a great favourite with her royal husband, 
and for six months she seemed to be delighted with 
her position ; but at length, disgusted with the un- 
bridled licence of the royal harem, the hypocrisy and 
the mad revelry of the court, contrasted with the 
famine of the citizens, a prey to remorse, she tore off 
her jewels and her queenly robes, and asked John of 
Leyden permission to leave the city. This was on 
the 1 2th June. The king, furious at an apostacy in 
his own house, dragged her into the market-place, and 
there in the presence of his wives and the populace, 
smote off her head with his own hands, stamped on 
her body, and then chanting the " Gloria in excelsis " 
with his queens, danced round the corpse weltering in 
its blood. 1 

However, the royal magazines were now nearly ex- 
hausted, and the king was informed that there remained 
provisions for only a few days. He resolved to carry 
on his joyous life of debauchery without thought of 
the morrow, and when all was expended, to fire the 
city in every quarter, and then to rush forth, arms in 
hand, and break through the investing girdle, or 
perish in the attempt. 2 This project was not exe- 

1 Kerssenbroeck, pp. 176-7; Dorpius, f. 498 b; Sleidan, p. 
422, says she was executed for having observed to some of her 
companions that it could not be the will of God that they should 
live in abundance whilst the subjects perished from want of 
necessaries. Hast, p. 395 ; Heresbach, p. 145. 

3 Kerssenbroeck, p. 177. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 349, 

cuted, for the siege was abruptly ended before the 
moment had arrived for its accomplishment. 

Late in the preceding year, a soldier of the 
Episcopal army, John Eck, of Langenstraten, or, as 
he was called from his diminutive stature, Hansel 
Eck, having been punished as he deemed excessively 
or unjustly for some dereliction in his duty, deserted 
to the Anabaptists, and found an asylum in the city,, 
where John Bockelson, perceiving his abilities and 
practical acquaintance with military operations, made 
him one of his captains. 

But Hansel soon repented bitterly this step he had 
/""taken. Little men are proverbially peppery and 
ready to stand on their dignity. His desertion had 
been the result of an outburst of wounded self-pride, 
and when his wrath cooled down, and his judgment 
obtained the upper hand, he was angry with himself 
for what he had done. Feeling confident that the 
city must eventually fall, and knowing that small 
mercies would be shown to a deserter caught in arms, 
however insignificant he might be in stature, Hansel 
took counsel with eight other discontented soldiers in 
his company, and they resolved to escape from 
Miinster and ask pardon of the bishop. 
/ They effected the first part of their object on the 
night of the 17th June, and crossed the Konigreich 
towards the lines of the investing force. The 
sentinels, observing a party of armed men advancing, 
with the moon flashing from their morions and breast- 
plates, fired on them and killed seven. His diminutive 
stature stood Hansel in good stead, and he, with one 
other named Sobb, succeeded in escalading the ram- 



350 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

parts unobserved, and in making their way to the 
nearest fort of Hamm, where the old officer, Meinhardt 
von Hamm, under whom he had formerly served, was 
in command. Hansel and Sobb were conducted into 
his presence, and offered to deliver the city into the 
hands of the prince-bishop if he would accord them a 
free pardon ; but they added that no time must be 
lost, as it was but a question of hours rather than of 
days before the city was fired, and the final sortie was 
executed. 1 

Meinhardt listened to his plan, approved of it, and 
wrote to Francis of Waldeck, asking a safe-conduct 
for Hansel, and urging the utmost secrecy, as on the 
preservation of the secret depended the success of the 
scheme. 

The safe-conduct was readily granted, and the de- 
serter was brought to Willinghegen concealed amidst 
game in a cart covered with boughs of trees. Willing- 
hegen is a small place one mile outside the circum- 
vallation. The chiefs of the besieging army met here 
to consider the plan of Hansel Eck. The little 
man protested that with 300 men he could take the 
•city. He knew the weak points, and he could escalade 
the walls where they were unguarded. Four hundred 
soldiers were, however, decided to be sent on the ex- 
pedition, under the command of Wilkin Steding, " a 
terrible enemy but a devoted friend ; " John of 
Twickel was to be standard-bearer, and Hansel was 
to act as guide ; and the attempt was to be made on 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 179 etseq.; Sleidan, p. 427; Montfort., 
p. 71 ; Heresbach, p. 162 et seq. ; Hast, p. 395 et seq. ; Dorpius, 
£ 499. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 351 

the eve of St. John the Baptist's day. 1 However, the 
bishop and Count Ueberstein, desirous of avoiding 
unnecessary effusion of blood, summoned the in- 
habitants to surrender, for the last time, on the 22nd 
June. 

Rottmann replied to the deputies that " the city 
should be surrendered only when they received the 
order to do so from the Father by a revelation." 
/"Midsummer eve was a hot, sultry day. Towards 
evening dark heavy clouds rolled up against the wind, 
and a violent storm of thunder, lightning, and hail 
burst over the doomed city. The sentinels of 
Minister, exhausted by hunger, and alarmed at the 
rage of the elements, quitted their posts and retreated 
under shelter. The darkness, the growl of the wind, 
and the boom of the thunder concealed the approach 
of the Episcopal troops. The 400, under Steding, 
guided by the deserter, marched into the Konigreich 
between ten and eleven o'clock, and met with no ob- 
stacles till they reached the Holy-cross Gate. Here 
they filled the ditch with faggots, trees, and bundles 
of straw ; a bridge was improvised, the curtain of 
palisades masking the bastion was surmounted, 
ladders were planted, and without meeting with the 
least resistance, the 400 reached the summit of the 
walls. The sentinels, whom they found asleep , were 
killed, with the exception of one who purchased his 
life by giving up the pass-word, " Die Erde." The 
soldiers then advanced along the paved road which 
lay between the double walls, captured and killed the 
sentinels at every watch tower, and then, entering the 
1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 169 ; and the authors before cited. 



352 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

streets, crossed the cemetery of Ueberwasser, the 
River Aa by its bridge, and debouched on the cathedral 
square, where the faint flashes of the retreating light- 
ning illumined at intervals the gaunt scaffolding of the 
throne and gallery and pulpit of the Anabaptist king, 
looking now not unlike the preparations for an exe- 
cution. 

The cathedral had been converted into the arsenal. 
Hansel led the Episcopal soldiers to the western gates, 
gave the word " Die Erde," and the guards were 
killed before they could give the alarm. The ar- 
tillery was now in the hands of the 400. 1 

--The Anabaptists had slept through the rumble of 
the thunder, but suddenly the rattle of the drum on 
their hill of Zion woke them with a start. They 
sprang from their beds, armed in haste, and rushed 
to the cathedral square, where their own cannons 
opened on them their mouths of fire, and poured an 
iron shower down the main thoroughfares which 
led from the Minster green. But they were not 
discouraged. Through backways, and under the 
shelter of the surrounding houses, they reached the 
Chapel of St. Michael, which commanded the position 
of the Episcopal soldiers, and thence fired upon them 
with deadly precision. 

Steding turned the guns against the chapel, but its 
massive walls could not be broken through, and the 
balls bounded from them without effecting more than 
a trivial damage. The Anabaptists pursued their 
advantage. Whilst Steding was occupied with those 
who held the Chapel of St. Michael, a large number 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 176 et scq. ; and the authors before cited. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 353 

assembled in the market-place and marched in close 
ranks upon the cathedral square. 

The 400, unable to withstand the numbers opposed 
to them, were driven from their positions, and retreated 
into the narrow Margaret Street, where they were 
unable to use their arms with advantage. Steding 
burst open the door of a house, and sent 200 of his 
men through it ; they issued through the back door, 
filled up a narrow lane running parallel with the 
street, and attacked the Anabaptists in the rear, who, 
thinking that the city was in the hands of the enemy, 
and that they were being assailed by a reinforcement, 
fled precipitately. 

/"By an unpardonable oversight, Steding had for- 
gotten to leave a guard at the postern by which he 
had entered the city. The Anabaptists discovered 
this mistake and profited by it, so that when the 
reinforcements sent to support Steding arrived, the 
gates were closed, and the walls were defended by 
the women, who cast stones and firebrands, and shot 
arrows amongst them, taunting them with the failure 
of the attempt to surprise the city ; and they, un- 
certain whether to believe that the plot of Hansel 
Eck had failed or not, remained without till break of 
day, vainly attempting to escalade the walls. The 
Anabaptists, who had fled in the Margaret Street, 
soon rallied, and the 400 were again exposed to the 
fury of a multitude three times their number, who 
assailed them in front and in rear, and they were 
struck down by stones and furniture cast out of the 
windows upon them by the women in the houses. 

Nevertheless they bravely defended themselves for 

z 



354 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

several hours, and their assailants began to lose 
courage, as news of the onslaught upon the walls 
reached them. It was now midnight. King John 
proposed a temporary cessation of hostilities, which 
Steding gladly accepted ; and the messengers of 
Bockelson offered the 400 their life if they would lay 
down their arms, kneel before him, and ask his 
pardon. 1 

The soldiers indignantly rejected this offer, but 
proposed to quit the town with their arms and ensigns. 
A long discussion ensued, which Steding protracted 
till break of day. 

At the opening of the negotiations, Steding bade 
John von Twickel, the ensign, hasten to the ramparts 
with three men, as secretly as possible, and urge on the 
reinforcements. Twickel reached the bastions as day 
began to dawn, and he shouted to his comrades with- 
out to help Steding and his gallant band before all 
was lost. The Episcopalians, dreading a ruse of the 
besieged to draw them into an ambush, hesitated ; but 
Twickel called the watchword, which was Waldeck,, 
and announced the partial success of the 400. 

Having accomplished his mission, Twickel returned 
to his comrades within, cheering them at the top of 
his voice with the cry from afar, " Courage, friends,, 
help is at hand ! " 

At these words the remains of the gallant band of 
400 recommenced the combat with irresistible energy 
They fell on the Anabaptists with such vehemence 
that they drove them back on all sides ; they gave no 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 385 ; Heresbach, pp. 162-6 ; Montfort., p. 
72 ; Hast, p. 396 et seq. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 355 

quarter, but breaking into divisions, swept the streets, 
meeting now with only a feeble resistance, for the 
soldiers without were battering at the gates. In vain 
did the sectarians offer to leave the town, their offer 
came too late, and the little band drove them from one 
rallying point to another. 1 

Rottmann, feeling that all was lost, cast himself on 
their lances and fell. John of Leyden, instead of 
heading his party, attempted to fly, but was recognised 
as he was escaping through the gate of St. Giles, and 
was thrown into chains. 

In the meantime the reinforcement had mounted 
the walls, beaten in the gates, and was pouring up the 
streets, rolling back the waves of discomfited Ana- 
baptists on the swords and spears of the decimated 
400. Two hundred of the most determined among 
the fanatics -entrenched themselves in a round tower 
commanding the market-place, and continued firing 
on the soldiers of the prince. The generals, seeing 
that the town was in their power, and that it would 
cost an expenditure of time and life to reduce those 
in the tower, offered them their life, and permission to 
march out of Miinster unmolested if they would 
surrender. 

pOn these terms the Anabaptists in the bastion 
laid down their arms. The besiegers now spread 
throughout the city, hunting out and killing 
the rebels. Hermann Tilbeck, the former burgo- 
master, who had played into the hands of the 
Anabaptists till he declared himself, and who had 
been one of the twelve elders of Israel, was found 
3 Kerssenbroeck, pp. 1S8, 189.' 



356 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

concealed, half submerged, in a privy, near the gate 
of St. Giles, was killed, and his body left where he had 
hidden, "thus being buried," says Kerssenbroeck, 
<; with worse than the burial of an ass." When the 
butchery was over, the bodies were brought together 
into the cathedral square and were examined. That 
of Knipperdolling was not amongst them. He was, 
in fact, hiding in the house of Catherine Hobbels, a 
zealous Anabaptist ; she kept him in safety the 
whole of the 26th, but finding that every house 
was being searched, and fearing lest she should 
suffer for having sheltered him, she ordered 
him to leave and attempt an escape over the 
walls. 1 

'"On the 27th a all the women were collected in 
the market-square, and were ordered to leave the 
city and never to set foot in it again. But just as 
they were about to depart, Ueberstein announced that 
any one of them who could deliver up Knipperdolling 
should be allowed to remain and retain her possessions. 
The bait was tempting. Catherine Hobbels stepped 
forward, and offered to point out the hiding-place of 
the man they sought. She was given a renewed 
assurance that her house and goods would be respected, 
and she then delivered up Knipperdolling, who had 
not quitted his place of refuge. The promise made 
to her was rigorously observed ; but her husband, not 
being included in the pardon, and being a ringleader 
of the fanatics, was executed. 2 The women were 
accompanied by the soldiers as far as the Lieb-Frau 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 195. 

2 Ibid. p. 196; Heresbach, p. 166. 



1HE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 357 

gate ; they took with them their children, and were 
ordered to leave the diocese and principality forthwith. 

Divara, the head queen of John of Leyden, the wife 
of Knipperdolling, and three other women, were 
refused permission to leave. They were executed on 
the 7th July. 

Miinster was then delivered over to pillage ; but all 
those who had left the town during the government 
of the Anabaptists were given their furniture and 
houses and such of their goods as could be identified. 

All the property of the Anabaptists was confiscated, 
and sold to pay the debts contracted by the prince 
for defraying the expenses of the war. The division 
of the booty occasioned several troubles, parties of 
soldiers mutinied, and attempted a second pillage, but 
the mutineers were put down rigorously. 

Several more executions took place during the 
following days, and men hidden away in cellars, 
garrets and sewers were discovered and killed or 
carried off to prison. Among these were Bernard 
Krechting and Kerkering. 1 

On the 28th June, Francis of Waldeck entered the 
city at the head of 800 men. The sword, crown, and 
spurs of John of Leyden, together with the keys of 
the city, were presented to him. 2 

The prince received, as had been stipulated, half the 
booty, and the articles and the treasure deposited in 

1 Kerssenbroeck, pp. 198-200. Dorpiussays, " In the capture 
of the city, women and children were spared ; and none were 
killed after the first fight, except the ringleaders." — f. 399. 

2 Montfort., p. 73. 



358 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

the town-hall and in the royal palace, which amounted 
to IOO.OOO gold florins. 1 

Francis remained in Miinster only three days. 
Having named the new magistrates, and organised 
the civil government of the city, he departed for his 
castle of Iburg. On the 13th July he ordered a Te 
Deum to be sung in the churches throughout the 
diocese, in thanks to God for having restored 
tranquillity ; and the Chapter inaugurated a yearly 
thanksgiving procession to take place on the 25th 
June. 2 

On the 1 5th July, the Elector of Cologne, the Duke 
of Juliers, and Francis of Waldeck, met at Neuss to 
concert measures for preventing a repetition of these 
disorders. The leading Protestant divines wrote, 
urging the extermination of the heretics, and remind- 
ing the princes that the sword had been given them 
for this purpose. 

On the same day, the diet of Worms agreed that 
the Anabaptists should be extirpated as a sect, 
dangerous alike to morals and to the safety of the 
commonwealth, and that an assembly should be held 
in the month of November, to decide upon defraying 
the cost of the war, and on the form of government 
which was to be established in the city. 3 

The diet met on the 1st November, and decided, — 
That everything should be re-established in Miinster 
on the old footing, and that the clergy should have 
their property and privileges restored to them. That 
all who had fled the city to escape the government of 

1 Kerssenbroeck, Heresbach, p. 168 ; Hast, p. 400. 
2 Ibid. p. 200. 3 Ibid. p. 201. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 359 

the Anabaptists should be reinstated in the posses- 
sion of their offices, privileges, and houses. That all 
the goods of the rebels should remain confiscated to 
defray the expense of the war. That the princes of 
neighbouring states should send deputies to Mtinster 
to provide that the innocent should not suffer with 
the guilty. That the fortifications should be in part 
demolished, as an example ; but that Miinster should 
not be degraded from its rank as a city. That the 
bishop and chapter and nobles should demolish the 
bastions within the town as soon as the city walls 
had been razed. That the bishops, the nobles, and 
the citizens should solemnly engage, for themselves 
and for their successors, never to attempt to refortify 
the city. Finally, that the envoys of the King of the 
Romans and of the princes should visit the said town 
on the 5th March, 1536, to see that these articles of 
the convention had been executed. 

All these articles were not observed. The bishop 
did not demolish the fortifications, and the point was 
not insisted upon. 

As for the civil constitution of Miinster, its privi- 
leges and franchises, they were not entirely restored 

till 1553- 

Francis of Waldeck now set to work repairing and 
purifying the churches, and restoring everything as it 
had been before. Catholic worship was everywhere 
restored without a single voice in the city rising in 
opposition. The people were sick of Protestantism, 
whether in its mitigated form as Lutheranism, or in 
its aggravated development as Anabaptism. 

But Lutherans of other states were by no means 



360 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

satisfied. The reconciliation of the great city with 
the Catholic Church, from which half its inhabitants 
had previously separated, was not pleasant news to 
the Reformers, and they protested loudly. " On the 
Friday after St. John's day," wrote Dorpius "in mid- 
summer, God came and destroyed this hell and drove 
the devil out, but the devil's mother came in again. 
. . . The Anabaptists were on that day rooted out, 
and the Papists planted in again." 1 

It is time to look at John of Leyden and his 
fellow-prisoners : they were Knipperdolling and Ber- 
nard Krechting. There could be no doubt that their 
fate would be terrible. It was additional cruelty to 
delay it. But the bishop and the Lutheran divines 
were curious to see and argue with the captives, and 
they were taken from place to place to gratify their 
curiosity. 

When King John appeared before Francis of 
Waldeck, the bishop asked him angrily how he could 
protract the siege whilst his people were starving 
around him. " Francis of Waldeck," he answered, 
" they should all have died of hunger before I sur- 
rendered, had things gone as I desired." 2 He retained 
his spirits and affected to joke. At Dulmen the 
people crowded round him asking, " Is this the king 
who took to himself so many wives ? " "I ask your 

1 " Hernach auff freitag S. Johanstag mitten in Sommer, 
kommet Gott und zerstoret die Helle, und jaget den Teuffel 
heraus, und komet sein Mutter wider hinein . . . und sind die 
Widerteuffer an obgemeltem tag ausgerottet worden, die Pa- 
pisten aber wider eingepflantzet." — Dorp. f. 399 (by misprint 499). 

2 Dorp. ff. 399 a, 400 a, b. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 561 

pardon," answered Bockelson, " I took maidens and 
made them wives." 1 

f It has been often stated that the three unfortunates 
were carried round the country in iron cages. This 
is inaccurate. They were taken in chains on horse- 
back, with two soldiers on either side ; their bodies 
were placed in iron cages and hung to the steeple of 
the church of St. Lambert, after they were dead. 

At Bevergern the Lutheran divine, Anthony Cor- 
vinus, and other ministers " interviewed " the fallen 
king, and a long and very curious account of their 
discussion remains. 2 

" First, when the king was brought out of prison 
into the room, we greeted him in a friendly manner 
and bade him be seated before us four. Also, we 
asked in a friendly manner how he was getting on in 
the prison, and whether he was cold or sick? Answer 
of the king : Although he was obliged to endure the 
frost, and the sins weighing on his heart, yet he must, 
as such was God's will, bear patiently. And these 
and other similar conversations led us so far— for 
nothing can be got out of him by direct questions — 
that we were able right craftily to converse with him 
about his government." 

Then followed a lengthy controversy on all the 
heretical doctrines of the Anabaptist sect, in which 
the king exhibited no little skill. The preachers 
having brought the charge of novelty against Ana- 

1 Dorp. f. 399 b. 

2 Luther's " Sammtliche Werke." Wittenb. 1545-51. Band, 
ii. ff. 376-336. 



362 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

baptism, John of Leyden very promptly showed that 
those living in glass houses should not throw stones, 
by pointing out that Lutheranism was not much 
older than Anabaptism, that he had proved his 
mission by miracles, whereas Luther had nothing to 
show to demonstrate his call to establish a new creed. 

The discussion on Justification by Faith only was 
most affectionate, for both parties were quite agreed 
on this doctrine — surely a very satisfactory one and 
very full of comfort to John of Leyden. But on the 
doctrine of the Eucharist they could not agree, the 
king holding to Zwingli. 1 

" That in this Sacrament the faithful, who are 
baptised, receive the Body and Blood of Christ 
believe I," said the king ; " for though I hold for this 
time with Zwingli, nevertheless I find that the words 
of Christ (This is my Body, This is my Blood) must 
remain in their worth. But that unbelievers also, 
receive the Body and Blood of Christ, that I cannot 
believe." 

The Preachers: "How that? Shall our unbelief 
avail more than the word, command and ordinance 
of God ? " 

The King: "Unbelief is such a dreadful thing, 
that I cannot believe that the unbelievers can partake 
of the Body and Blood of Christ." 

The Preachers : " It is a perverse thing that you 
should ever try to set our faith, or want of faith, 
above the words and ordinance of God. But it is 
evident that our faith can add nothing to God's 

1 " Derm wiewol ichs fur dieser zeit mit dem Zwingel 
gehalten," &c, f. 384. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 363 

ordinance, nor can my unbelief detract anything 
therefrom. Faith must be there, that I may benefit 
by such eating and drinking ; but yet in this matter 
must we repose more on God's command and word 
than on our faith or unbelief." 

The King: "If this your meaning hold, then all 
unbelievers must have partaken of the Communion of 
the Body and Blood of Christ. But such I cannot 
believe." 

The Preachers : " You must understand that our 
unbelief cannot make the ordinance of God un- 
availing. Say now, for what end was the sun 
created ? " 

The King : " Scripture teaches that it was made to 
rule the day and to shine." 

The Preachers : " Now if we or you were blind, 
would the sun fail to execute its office for which it 
was created ? " 

The King : " I know well that my blindness or 
yours would not make the sun fail to shine." 

The Preachers : " So is it with all the works and 
ordinances of God, especially with the Sacraments. 
When I am baptised it is well if faith be there ; but 
if it be not, baptism does not for all that fail to be a 
precious, noble, and holy Sacrament, yes, what St. 
Paul calls it, a regeneration and renewal of the 
Holy Ghost, because it is ordered by God's word and 
given His promise. So also with respect to the 
Lord's Supper; if those who partake shall have faith 
to grasp the promise of Christ, as it is written, Oportet 
accedentem credere, but none the less does God's word, 
ordinance, and command remain, even if my faith 



364 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

never more turned thereto. But of this we have said 
enough." 1 

The preachers next catechised John of Leyden on 
his heresy concerning the Incarnation. He did not 
deny that Jesus Christ was born of Mary, but he 
denied that He derived from her His flesh and 
blood, as he considered that Mary being sinful, out of 
sinful flesh sinful offspring must issue. 

The catechising on the subject of marriage follows. 

The Preachers : " How have you regarded mar- 
riage, and what is your belief thereupon ? " 

The King : " We have ever held marriage to be 
God's work and ordinance, and we hold this now, 
that no higher or better estate exists in the world than 
the estate of matrimony." 

The Preachers : " Why have you so wildly treated 
this same estate, against God's word and common 
order, and taken one wife after another ? How can 
you justify such a proceeding ? " 

The King- : " What was permitted to the patriarchs 
in the Old Testament, why should it be denied to us ? 
What we have held is this : he who wished to have 
only one wife had not other wives forced upon him; but 
him who wished to have more wives than one, we left 
free to do so, according to God's command, Be fruitful 
and multiply." 

This the preachers combat by saying that the 
patriarchs were guiltless, because the law of the land 
{die genuine Policey) did not then forbid concubinage, 
but that now that is forbidden by common law, it is 

1 Ibid. f. 384 b. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 365 

sinful. 1 Then they asked the king what other texts 
he could quote to establish polygamy. 

The King : " Paul says of the bishop, let him be the 
husband of one wife ; now if a bishop is to have only 
one wife, surely, in the time of Paul, laymen must 
have been allowed two or three apiece, as pleased 
them. There you have your text." 

The Preachers : " As we said before, marriage is an 
affair of common police regulation, res Politica. And 
as now the law of the land is different from what it 
was in the time of Paul, so that many wives are for- 
bidden and not tolerated, you will have to answer for 
your innovations before God and man." 

The King : " Well, I have the consolation that what 
was permitted to the fathers cannot damn us. I had 
rather be with the fathers than with you." 

The Preachers : " Well, we prefer obedience to the 
State." 2 

Here we see Corvinus, Kymens, and the other 
ministers placing matrimony on exactly the same low 
footing as did Luther. 

Having " interviewed" the king, these crows settled 
on Knipperdolling and Krechting in Horstmar, and 
with these unfortunates they carried on a paper con- 
troversy. 

The captivity of the king and his two accomplices 
lasted six months. The Lutheran preachers had 

1 Wei zweiveln nicht wenn ein bestendig Policey und Regi- 
ment gewesen were, wie itzt est, es wiirden sich die Vetter 
freilich ang der selbigen gehalten haben. 

2 Predicanten : So wollen wir in diesemfall viel lieber der 
Oberkeit gehorsam sein, f. 386 b. 



366 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

swarmed about him and buzzed in his ears, and the 
poor wretch believed that by yielding a few points he 
could save his life. He offered to labour along with 
Melchior Hoffmann, to bring the numerous Ana- 
baptists in Friesland, Holland, Brabant, and Flanders 
into submission, if he were given his liberty ; but 
finding that the preachers had been giving him false 
hopes and leading him into recantations, he refused to 
see them again, and awaited his execution in sullen 
despair. 

The pastors failing to convert the Anabaptists, 
and finding that the sectaries used against them 
scripture and private judgment with such efficacy 
that they were unable in argument to overcome them, 
called upon the princes to exterminate them by fire 
and sword. 

The gentle Melancthon wrote a tract or letter to 
urge the princes on ; it was entitled, " Das weltliche 
Oberkeiten den Widerteuffern mit leiblicher straffe zu 
wehren schiildig sey. Etlicher bedenken zu Wittem- 
berg gestellet durch Philip Melancthon, 1536. Ob 
Christliche Fiirsten schiildig sind der Widerteuffer 
unchristlicher Sect mit leiblicher straffe und mit dem 
schwert zu wehren." He enumerates the doctrines of 
the unfortunate sectarians at Minister and elsewhere, 
and then he says that it is the duty of all princes and 
nobles to root out with the sword all heresy from their 
dominions ; but then, with this proviso, they must 
first be instructed out of God's Word by the pure re- 
formed Church what doctrines are heretical, that they 
may only exterminate those who differ from the 
Lutheran communion. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 367 

' He then quotes to the Protestant princes the ex- 
ample of the Jewish kings : " The kings in the Old 
Testament, not only the Jewish kings, but also the 
converted heathen kings, judged and killed the false 
prophets and unbelievers. Such examples show the 
office of princes. As Paul says, the law is good 
that blasphemers are to be punished. The govern- 
ment is not to rule men for their bodily welfare, 
so much as for God's honour, for they are God's 
ministers ; let them remember that and value their 
office." 

But it is argued on the other side that it is written, 
" Let both grow together till the harvest. Now this is. 
not spoken to the temporal power," says Melancthon, 
" but to the preachers, that they should not use physi- 
cal power under the excuse of their office. From all 
this it is plain that the worldly government is bound 
to drive away blasphemy, false doctrine, heresies, and 
to punish in their persons those who hold to these 
things .... Let the judge know that this sect of Ana- 
baptists is from the devil, and as a prudent preacher 
instructs different stations how they are to conduct 
themselves, as he teaches a wife that to breed children 
is to please God well, so he teaches the temporal 
authorities how they are to serve God's honour, and 
openly drive away heresy." 1 

So also did Justus Menius write to urge on an 
exterminatory persecution of the sectaries ; he also 
argues that " Let both grow together till the harvest," 

1 " Das weltliche Oberkeit," &c, in Luth. " Samt. Werke." 
1545-51, ii. ff. 327-8. 



3 68 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

is not to be quoted by the princes as an excuse for 
sparing lives and properties. 1 

On the 1 2th January, 1536, John of Leyden, Knip- 
perdolling, and Krechting were brought back to 
Miinster to undergo sentence of death. 2 

A platform was erected in the square before the 
townhall on the 21st, and on this platform was 
planted a large stake with iron collars attached to it. 

When John Bockelson was told, on the 21st, that 
he was to die on the morrow, he asked for the chaplain 
of the bishop, John von Siburg, who spent the night 
with him. With the fear of a terrible death before 
him, the confidence of the wretched man gave way, 
and he made his confession with every sign of true 
contrition. 

Knipperdolling and Krechting, who were also 
offered the assistance of a priest, rejected the offer 
with contempt. They declared that the presence of 
God sufficed them, that they were conscious of having 
committed no sin, and that all their actions had been 
done to the sole glory of God, that moreover they 
were freely justified by faith in Christ. 

On Monday the 22nd, at eight o'clock in the morn- 
ing, the ex-king of Miinster and his companions were 
led to execution. The gates of the city had been 
closed, and a large detachment of troops surrounded 
the scaffold. Outside this iron ring was a dense crowd 
of people, and the windows were filled with heads. 
Francis of Waldeck occupied a window immediately 

1 " Vondem Geist d. Widerteuffer." in Luth. " Samt. Werke." 
1545-51, ii. f. 325 b. 
2 Kerssenbroeck, p. 209 ; Kurtze Hist. f. 400. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 369 

opposite the scaffold, and remained there throughout 
the hideous tragedy. 1 As an historian has well 
observed, " Francis of Waldeck, in default of other 
virtues, might at least have not forgotten what was 
due to his high rank and his Episcopal character ; he 
regarded neither — but showed himself as ferocious as 
had been John Bockelson, by becoming a spectator of 
the long and horrible torture of the three criminals." 2 

John and his accomplices having reached the town- 
hall, received their sentence from Wesseling, the city 
judge. It was that they should be burned with red- 
hot pincers, and finally stabbed with daggers heated 
in the fire. 3 

The king was the first to mount the scaffold and be 
tortured. 

_ " The king endured three grips with the pincers 
without speaking or crying, but then he burst forth 
into cries of, " Father, have mercy on me ! God of 
mercy and loving kindness ! " and he besought pardon 
of his sins and help. The bystanders were pierced to 
the heart by his shrieks of agony, the scent of the 
roast flesh filled the market-place ; his body was one 
great wound. At # length the sign was given, his 
tongue was torn out with the red pincers, and a 
dagger pierced his heart. 

Knipperdolling and Krechting were put to the tor- 
ture directly after the agonies of the king had begun. 

1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 210 ; Kurtze Hist. f. 400. 

2 Bussierre, p. 462. 

3 Kerssenbroeck, p. 211 ; Bullinger, lib. ii. c. 10 ; Montfort., 

p. 74 ; Heresbach, pp. 166-7 ; Hast, pp. 405-6 ; Kurtze Historia 

f. 400. 

2 a 



370 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

Knipperdolling endeavoured to beat his brains out 
against the stake, and when prevented, he tried to 
strangle himself with his own collar. To prevent him 
accomplishing his design, a rope was put through his 
mouth and attached to the stake so as totally to 
incapacitate him from moving. When these unfortu- 
nates were dead, their bodies were placed in three iron 
cages, and were hung up on the tower of the church of 
St. Lambert, the king in the middle. 1 

Thus ended this hideous drama, which produced an 
effect throughout Germany. The excess of the scandal 
inspired all the Catholic governments with horror, and 
warned them of the immensity of the danger they ran 
in allowing the spread of Protestant mysticism. Cities 
and principalities which wavered in their allegiance to 
the Church took a decided position at once. 

At Minister, Catholicism was re-established. As 
has been already mentioned, the debauched, cruel 
bishop was a Lutheran at heart, and his ambition was 
to convert Miinster into an hereditary principality in 
his family, after the example of certain other 
princes. 

Accordingly, in 1 543, he proposed to the States of 
the diocese to accept the Confession of Augsburg and 
abandon Catholicism. The proposition of the prince 
was unanimously rejected. Nevertheless the prince 
joined the Protestant union of Smalkald the following 
year, but having been complained of to the Pope and 
the Emperor, and fearing the fate of Hermann von 
Wied, Archbishop of Cologne, he excused himself as 
best he could through his relative, Jost Hodefilter, 
1 Kerssenbroeck, p. 211 ; Kurtze Hist. f. 401. 



THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER. 371 

bishop of Liibeck, and Franz von Dei, suffragan bishop 
of Osnabriick. 

Before the Smalkald war the prince-bishop had 
secretly engaged the help of the Union against his old 
enemy, the " wild" Duke Henry of Brunswick. After 
the war, the Duke of Oldenburg revenged himself on 
the principality severely, with fire and sword, and 
only spared Minister itself for 100,000 guilders. The 
bishop died of grief. He left three natural sons by 
Anna Polmann. They bore as their arms a half star, 
a whole star being the arms of Waldeck. 

Authorities : Hermann von Kerssenbroeck ; Geschichte der 
Wiederthaiiffer zu Minister in Westphalen. Miinster, 1771. 
There is an abbreviated edition in Latin in Menckenii Scrip- ■ 
tores Rerum Germanicaum, Leipsig, 1728-30. T. lii. pp. 
1503-1618. 

Wie das Evangelium zu Miinster erstlich angefangen, und 
die Widerteuffer verstoret widerauffgehoret hat. Darnach was 
die teufflische Secte der Widerteuffer fur grewliche Gotteslester- 
ung und unsagliche grawsamkeit .... in der Stad geiibt und 
getrieben ; beschrieben durch Henrichum Dorpium Mon- 
asteriensem ; in Luther's Sammtliche Werke. Wittemb. 1545- 
51. Band ii. ff. 391-401. 

Historia von den Miinsterischen Widerteuffern. 

Ibid. ff. 328-363. 

Acta, Handlungen, Legationen und Schriften, &c, d. Mun- 
sterischen sachen geschehen. Ibid., ff. 363-391. 

Kurtze Historia wie endlich der Kbnig sampt zweien gerichted, 
&c. Ibid. ff. 400-9. 

D. Lambertus Hortensius Monfortius, Tumultuum Ana- 
baptistarum Liber unus. Amsterdam, 1636. 

Histoire de la Reformation, ou Memoires de Jean Sleidan. 
Trad, de Courrayer. La Haye, 1667. Vol. ii. lib. x. [This is 
the edition quoted in the article. 



372 HISTORIC ODDITIES. 

Sleidanus : Commentarium rerum in Orbe gestarum, &c. 
Argent. 1555 ; ed. alt. 1559, 

I. Hast, Geschichte der Wiederthauffer von ihren Entstehen 
in Zwickau bis auf ihren Sturz zu Miinster in Westphalen 
Miinster. 1836. 



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